


Wyrmling

by Verdic



Category: Fractured Moon
Genre: F/F, F/M, Gen, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-04
Updated: 2019-07-13
Packaged: 2020-01-04 13:32:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 56,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18344681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Verdic/pseuds/Verdic
Summary: This is a story based on the the daughter of one of the characters from the D&D game I run. It will eventually become a full fledged book.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a story based on the the daughter of one of the characters from the D&D game I run. It will eventually become a full fledged book.

It was a warm late spring afternoon in Ollie, the Krellic trees were in full bloom and the gardens in town were a riot of colors and scents. Ianthe smiled as she breathed deeply, walking closer to some of the gardens and sniffing the flowers that hung over the trellis’s.

“Really? You aren’t bored with those flowers yet?” Harris asked, looking up at his taller companion. 

“I thought you’d like me doing this.” Ianthe smiled, her eyes still closed. “Keeps me from walking too fast.” Her smile widened as she heard Harris Brownleaf stamp in frustration. She finally looked down at her halfling companion. He stood only three feet tall, though he was still growing. The clerics said he had a few more inches to get till he was full height. His skin and hair were various shades of nutty brown, but his eyes were a gleaming blue. “Besides, they always smell so wonderful.” She flicked her one long braid behind her shoulder and continued to smell the flowers. 

“Aren’t you even curious if the letter came today?” Harris fidgeted with his shirt hem as he looked into his friend’s face. Ianthe inspired fear in most people who didn’t know her. Standing nearly six feet tall, taller if you included her curved horns, she was taller than most people her age. As his eyes drifted down, he glanced over her two pairs of arms, each with their own five clawed hands. Right behind them was an enormous pair of bat wings. Harris knew they were more than just decoration. He loved watching her fly, seeing her long, saurian tail stream out behind her. 

If he tried, he could almost forget that her succubus grandmother had caused a massive scandal in the town. However, today, he was unable to forget that. Personally, he was hoping that the letter hadn’t arrived. Well, at least he hoped one would arrive. A small, thin envelope. That’s what he wanted to see in her mailbox. He felt guilty wanting her to stay. 

“Of course I am! I’m also terrified.” Ianthe fiddled with the sling bag that held her school books. “I’ve already gotten three rejection letters. And I can’t even apply to the Imperial University!” She kicked the dirt, sagging on her digitigrade legs. 

“Why not?” He asked. The Imperial University? That was two weeks travel away by train. He was glad she couldn’t go there, for whatever reason. 

“Because, my whole family has been banished. Something about my mother killing one of the Emperor’s Champions. I don’t really remember. I should ask her.” Sucking in her breath and letting it out quickly, she stood up straight and stretched her wings to their full ten-foot wingspan. “Either that or we can always ask Uncle Al.”

“L…let’s ask your mother.” Harris chuckled. Even though he was able to look past Ianthe’s demonic visage, he was terrified of her uncle, who was a floating skull with ethereal flames. Every time he saw her uncle, his knees grew weak. Ianthe laughed at his nervousness. Her voice rang out like church bells, melodious and rich. 

They continued walking, meandering through the streets and alleys, talking about the upcoming finals. As they neared Ianthe’s home, they both reflexively looked up. Normally, before the spire even came into sight, they would see Charkassus’s head looking around. However, today the dragon’s head was missing. Harris immediately slowed down and moved closer to one of the buildings nearby.

“Ianthe, you go first. I’ll…I’ll be right behind you.” He was shaking, looking around for the dragon. Ianthe continued to walk forwards, seemingly uncaring about the fact that her dragon was missing. As she exited the alley, She immediately dove into a forward roll, twisting at the last moment to cause her tail to slash through the air. The long, purple muscle slammed against the copper muzzle of Charkassus as the wyrmling jumped out of hiding to ambush his mistress. 

The dragon trilled in surprise and indignation as it shook its head. Ianthe jumped onto the dragon’s back and wrestled him to the ground, causing minor tears in her lower skirts and blouse arms from the dragon’s scales. Charkassus was copper in color, with frills running down their neck and back. At the shoulder, they stood about two feet tall and seven in length, although the tail and neck made up five of those feet. Harris inched his way forwards, trying to stay away from the flailing limbs, wings, and tails. Before Ianthe could spot him, he quickly looked in her family’s mailbox. It was empty. He breathed a sigh of relief. One more day of safety.

He watched as the two eventually wore each other out. Laughing, and sporting a few new cuts, Ianthe led her young dragon back to the house. As they passed through the front garden, a small robotic golem made of a dusky copper looking metal stylized to look like wound cloth around a two foot humanoid walked forwards. 

“Hi Mana!” Ianthe waved at the small golem. It pointed at her. Looking down, she had the presence to look bashful. “We were just playing.” Without hesitation, Mana walked forwards and magic slowly seeped from it in a mist of bronze. The tears and rips on her clothing slowly stitched themselves back together and the dirt, grass, and blood stains were slowly removed. Eventually, the only evidence of the tussle was Ianthe’s mangled mohawk braid and her cuts. “Thanks!” She leaned down and kissed the golem’s head. The golem, unphased by any of what happened, went back to what it had been doing in the garden. 

Ianthe looked into the mailbox. Her smile faltered as she saw it was empty. There was a small amount of desperation in her solid sapphire eyes as she looked at Harris. “Maybe it already came and someone brought it inside.” 

Harris wasn’t able to hide his sadness. “Maybe.” Nervously, Ianthe opened the door and looked inside. No one was in the kitchen. However, on the table was a thick packet. Nearly forgetting Harris was next to her, her wings gave an excited flutter and she ran inside, looking at the packet. 

Ripping it open with wild abandon, she creamed in joy. “I got in!” She showed Harris the letter and the seal at the bottom of the page. “I got in to the university in the City of Mirrors!” Her tail waved behind her, slapping into the table and chairs in the kitchen. “I’ve even gotten into the mages program!”

Harris’s heart fell. This was what he didn’t want to happen. “That’s…great.” He didn’t feel it and didn’t try to hide it. “I had just been hoping…”

“That I’d stay here?” Ianthe asked. “You have your family’s trade here. I don’t really have anything. I mean…my family is here, but my mother is a musician and my dad’s the head of the guard. Besides, this is one of the best universities this side of the Wastelands!”

“I thought I meant more to you.” Harris muttered. Ianthe blanched at his words. 

“You’re my friend.” She replied, aggravated at his glumness. “We’ve been friends for years. It’s not like going away means I’m not going to be your friend!” His meaning slowly dawned on her. She took half a step back. “Wait, we aren’t even dating! And I’m not looking to get married, at least not yet.” The silence grew between them as they looked at each other. 

“I forgot my book at home.” Harris muttered. “I’m going to go back and study there. Congrats.” He quickly backed out of the room and walked back to the road, letting the fence gate swing open behind him. Moments later, Mana walked over and closed the gate. A minute after Harris had left the house, he was gone, and the only indication that he had been there was the still shocked and angry expression on Ianthe’s face. 

She was still standing there, in a near incomprehensible rage, when her younger brothers rocketed through the door. Lucian, her blond-haired half elven brother, was the first inside. Being the faster of the two, he dove to the side. Milo, her grey skinned demonic brother and younger of the two, did not see her and ran straight into his sister. His tiny body bounced off her, sending him ricocheting into the chairs near the table. 

Milo’s cries brought Ianthe back to the present. She quickly knelt down and scooped him up. “You need to be careful.” Her voice was gentle as she looked him over. His ash pale skin shows bruises and scrapes easily. From what she could see, he was unharmed. The crown of horns on his head were still short enough that his green hair covered each of the tiny nubs. Checking each one out, Iantha saw one of them was bruised. “This is what happens when you rush.” 

Lucius came over with a small jar of ointment. Taking a dab, Ianthe placed some of the ointment on her youngest brother’s bruised horn. “Did they say no?” Lucian asked.  
“Why would you think that?” Ianthe said absently, setting her youngest brother on his feet. 

“You looked like you wanted to murder someone.” Ianthe looked down at Lucian. For a boy of seven, a year under half her age, he was fairly perceptive.  
“No, I got in.” She showed him the letter. “It’s Harris. He…wasn’t happy for me.”

“Why not? I thought he was your friend! Doesn’t he want you to be a mage?” Lucian asked.

“Not really. He wanted me to stay here with him.” Ianthe sighed, picking up the packet to look at more of the papers.

“Why? We don’t have a mage’s college here.” Lucian looked confused. Ianthe ruffled his hair. 

“You’ll understand when you’re older. Just know that he is a jerk.” Ianthe looked back out the door, wondering what had come over Harris. “I’ve got to go study. Just because I got in doesn’t mean I don’t have to pass my exams for basic.” 

“Can we watch?” Lucian’s face lit up. He loved watching her go through her weapons training. Milo didn’t really care for it, but he loved cuddling with Charkassus, who was never far from Ianthe. 

“Maybe later. Right now, I think her academics are the ones that need some last minute studying.” The nasally voice of their Uncle Al came wafting in from the garden. They all turned to see a skull floating in the doorway, the green infernal symbols blazing as it floated closer. “We all know you can swing your swords, but if you’re going to study magics, you need to do well on your academics.”

“Al, seriously? I think my academics are fine.” Ianthe huffed. “I’ve gotten above proficient in everything.” She stepped forwards, glaring at the floating skull. Her eyes darted back and forth between his green gem eye and clear gem eye. She was never sure which one to focus on. As she glared at him, he started laughing. Ianthe couldn’t hold in her mirth. Al could always get her to laugh. “He’s right, I should crack a book tonight. Maybe another time.” Lucian groaned.

“Can you show us magic?” Milo asked. Ianthe smiled at her brother. With a flick of her wrist, she summoned a spectral hand and had it poke Al. 

“Oh, so that’s how it is?” Al replied. Although he had no flesh, they all could tell he was narrowing his eyes at her. His sickly green spectral, skeletal hand rose to meet her floral pink clawed hand. They started dueling with their hands, smiling widely as Lucian and Milo cheered them on. 

Finally, Ianthe sent a shock of lighting through her spectral hand into Al’s. The skeletal hand disappeared and reappeared. “Oh, cheating, are we?” The air around them got cold. Ianthe smiled innocently.  
“What’s going on here?” The clear alto of Lillia’s voice cut through the laughter. “Have you done your homework yet?” Three guilty faces turned to look at their mother. While she was half a foot shorter than her daughter, her presence in front of her children dwarfed them. Her blond hair hung in ringlets around her fair skin, green eyes narrowing on them. “Don’t give me that. All of you have homework and I want to see it done before dinner.” Slowly, they all walked off to the study to start on their homework.

Lillia glared at Al. “What, they needed some fun.” He floated over to the table. “Ianthe’s had a hard day. She got her acceptance letter.”

“That’s wonderful!” Lillia looked at the letter. “This is great! The City will be good for her, especially since the Awakening.”

“Harris was here too.” Al flipped through some of the pages. Lillia sighed. She knew what must have happened. She knew how Harris looked at her. Plenty of men had given her those looks before she had been married. 

“They’ll get over it. Heartbreaks hurt.” Lillia looked at the items her daughter would need. “The Serpent’s tail! She really needs all of these books and items?” 

“Ianthe was furious. I think Harris was in for more than she was.” Al looked over her shoulder. “Doesn’t she already have most of that?”

“Yeah, but the books alone will be expensive. I think we may even need to go into the trove downstairs.”

“Nah, I got her.” Al pulled out a small bag from within his skull and reached into it, pulling out a few gems. “She is my godsdaughter.” Lillia’s eyes went wide.

“Are those from that damn white dragon’s lair?” Al nodded. “That was eighteen years ago!” 

“I have nothing to use them on. I might as well spend them on her.” Lillia hugged Al. He patted her on the back with his spectral hand.

Later that evening, as the family was eating, Ianthe’s crystal started to chime. Jumping up from the table, she grabbed the crystal and accepted the incoming connection. As the crystal came into focus, she could see a smile ringed by brown curls on her best friend’s face. 

“Did you check your mail today?” Zeena asked, her languid and nasal accent rolling the words into one long word. Ianthe didn’t speak but just raised her acceptance letter. Zeena’s smile became wider. “Mine too! This is so amazing. Do you have your room selection set?” Ianthe bolted to the packet of papers. She placed the orb down and flipped through the pages. “Hello.” Zeena waved to the rest of the family.

“Got it.” Ianthe pulled the sheet out. “Doesn’t say. I have to contact them.”

Zeena dug through her papers. “Put down that you want the Aerie, third floor, suite three.” They smiled at each other. 

“Done! I’m going to mail this back tomorrow. I can’t believe we are going to be roommates.” Ianthe’s tail whipped back and forth in her excitement. 

*********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

“Are you sure you have everything?” Norris asked Ianthe. She looked at her father. It was the first time she realized she was taller than him, if only by an inch or two. His baritone voice was filled with both concern and pride. He had the same colored purple skin and curved horns. His hair was the same violet as hers, but he wore his in a double braid. She kept the sides of her head shaved, but the small strip in the middle was braided as well. He was dressed in his guard captain uniform, while she was wearing a long green dress. 

“Yes dad. This has all of my equipment and books in it.” She hefted the heavy chest next to her. “And I have plenty of clothing here.” She lifted the other chest. “You don’t need to worry.”

“Of course I don’t have to, but I’m your father.” He smiled at her. She smiled back, seeing the glint of tears in his green eyes. “I’m always going to worry about you. Remember, you can always call us if you need help and I have made your mother promise not to cast any sending spells directly to you.” 

“Thanks dad.” She hugged him, turning her head to the side so he couldn’t see the tears in hers. The train whistled. Ianthe let go of Norris and grabbed both trunks. “Bye Dad! Bye Mom! Love you both! Milo, Lucian, you two be good now. Bye Al!” She called to them as she backed up towards the train. As she boarded, Charkassus bounded after her and slithered into the car with her. The dragon curled up on the bench opposite her and promptly fell asleep. 

Opening the window, Ianthe leaned out and waved to her family with her two left arms as the train pulled from the station. She continued waving until they were out of sight. Her arms dropped to the windowsill and she pulled her knees under her, leaning out the window and watching the landscape roll by.


	2. Chapter 2

The train ride to the City of Mirrors was a four-day affair. Ianthe was bored with watching the scenery after the first ten minutes. She had grown up in this area for the past eighteen years and didn’t care to see it moving away before her. It already hurt enough to leave her family. 

After getting up to make sure the door was locked, she gave herself permission to cry. She had been away from her family before, but never for something this big. She was moving away. While her family had some connections in the City of Mirrors, she wouldn’t have her family there. She quickly pulled out her crystal ball. She knew if she needed, she could contact them his palm sized, oval crystal. Shoving it back inside of its case, she climbed next to Charkassus, pulling their body close with all of her arms. 

Ianthe shook herself awake as the train came to a halt. Looking around, she realized they were in the station outside of Karak city. Her parents had taken her here often, as it was the capital of the region they lived in. She had often joined her father when he had to make reports or to go see her mother perform. In all her time, she had yet to explore more than two districts. 

Most of the people from the Hinterlands were getting off here, as Karak city was the last trading post this far north. Ianthe stood up, pushing a still sleeping Charkassus onto the bench. Her sleeping muscles protested, and she started to stretch. She was in the middle of stretching her wings when the door of her compartment slid open. 

“Ex…excuse me…is there room in here for one more?” A nervous voice asked. Ianthe tucked her wings in and looked at the person on the door. The figure standing there was nearly a foot shorter than her with glossy black hair pulled into a loose ponytail. Large brown eyes were framed in an olive face half covered by the side forelocks of the black hair. The tips of pointed ears poked out from under the hair. 

While the face was very masculine, the clothing they wore was of a cut Ianthe would have called feminine. They were wearing a skirt that went down to her mid-calves and a loose tunic tucked into a wide hip belt. All were of a light cream color with sky blue embroideries of birds. 

Ianthe smiled. “Of course!” She looked around, seeing her luggage on one side and her sleeping dragon on the other. “Kass! Time to move, we need to make room for…” She turned to look at the newcomer as she hefted the wyrmling into her arms. 

“P…Penny.” Penny stammered as she saw the dragon. Her eyes went even wider when Ianthe reached out to shake her hand with one of her four arms. She hadn’t realized that Ianthe had four arms. She did a quick look over Ianthe’s body. 

“It’s nice to meet you Penny.” Ianthe dumped the dragon onto her side of the car. Charkassus, without waking, flipped over and landed in a sleeping position, completely unfazed. “I’m Ianthe.” She motioned to the bench with one of her other hands. Penny, still staring at the demoness before her, stumbled her way over to the bench and fell onto it. 

Sitting, Ianthe towered over her. All Penny could see was the swell of Ianthe’s thighs, her flat stomach, the bumps that were her breasts, her broad, muscled shoulders, and the horned head. Penny started to shake. “Are…are you a demon?” Penny quickly covered her mouth with her hands. “I’m sorry!” Her voice cracked. Ianthe screwed her face up at that. There was something about her face and voice that didn’t fit. After a moment, she mentally shrugged. Everyone was different, and she knew she was the last to judge on what was normal. 

“No, nothing to be sorry for. I do strike a very imposing figure. My grandmother is a fiend. And my father can be when he’s angry.” She chuckled. She tucked her legs under her as she sat, turning sideways so her tail wasn’t getting pinched. “I’m just the product of some odd magical experiments by an unknowingly pregnant mother.” She smiled, showing off her fangs. 

“Oh!” Penny shifted on her seat. “My family are sun elves from up north. When they heard the University in the City of Mirrors was opening a contest for applicants, my family begged me to join the contest.” Ianthe leaned forwards, enjoying the story. “I’m fascinated with mechanist and alchemical works. I didn’t think I’d win.” Penny fussed with her hands. 

“You got in on scholarship too?” Penny’s head whipped up, eyes wide. Ianthe shrugged. “I got in mostly on merit, and partially because of who my family is. I really would have preferred getting in just one merit alone…but I’m glad I got into any of the colleges.” 

“What are you going for?” Penny asked, seeing her companion’s frown. “I’m going to the Mechanist school, with a minor in alchemical applications.”

“I’m in a minor wizarding program.” Ianthe bit her lower lip. “The rest of my education is going to be mostly politics and tactics, with some sciences.”

“Isn’t that more of a noble’s education?” Penny asked, lowering her eyes. Ianthe was quiet for a moment before laughing. Her tail snaked over and tapped Penny’s knee playfully. 

“You’re right, it is. My family is no where near nobility though. I’m going more for the mage program, but I won’t turn my nose up at getting a little knowledge of everything I can.” They fell into a companionable silence for a while, looking out the window as the train started entering the hills south of Karak. “Hey, Penny?” Ianthe waited for Penny to acknowledge her. “Where are you staying while at the University?”

“Um…” Penny dug into her packet of papers. “Right…I chose not to stay in one of the dorms, as it was too expensive. I’m staying at one of the hostels that caters to the University.” She pulled out a small pamphlet. “They gave me a list of them.” Ianthe looked at the pamphlet, then dug into her pack for her own paperwork. She looked at the cost of the suite she was in. A sly smile crossed her face.

“Hold on.” She pulled out her crystal and concentrated on Zeena. When the crystal cleared, she saw her friend’s massive head of curls framed by a lovely evening sky. “Hey, do you know if there is anyone else in our suite?”

“No. I think when people found out who was in the suite, they asked for anything else.” Her friend’s usually cheery attitude soured, her thick tongued accent accentuating the pout. However, her mood almost immediately turned around. “That just means we have more privacy. It’ll be easier to make sure no one brings home a ‘friend’ without warning.” They both chuckled. 

“You’re the one who’d be bringing them home.” Ianthe stuck her long tongue out at her friend. “I ask because I think I have found a third person for the suite.”

Zeena’s eyes went wide. “Who is it? You must tell me.” Her curled hair bounced as her excitement grew. Ianthe got up and slid into the seat next to Penny. She angled the crystal so that the smaller girl was in the image was well. “Is that her?” Penny shrank into herself, blushing fiercely as she looked at her lap. “She is so cute. My name’s Zeena! I can’t wait to meet you!” 

“Calm down, you attention sucking bat. You’ll be able to meet her in a few days when we arrive.” Ianthe rolled her eyes. “I need to call my uncle.” Zeena waved to them, her wide smile showing a pair of fangs, before her image disappeared. She looked down at Penny. “I’m sorry. Zeena is a very excitable and friendly person.” She held up the crystal again to concentrate on her uncle when a thought nagged at her. “I’m sorry, I forgot to ask. Do you even want to me our suitemate?” 

Penny was speechless. She started fidgeting with the small copper necklace around her neck. “I can’t afford it.” 

“Don’t worry. My uncle is an adventurer and has been saving for this for about sixteen years.” Ianthe waved off Penny's concern. “I can always ask him if he can cover this. But only if you want to room with us.”

“Why does no one else want to room with you two? You seem like you would be…popular.” Penny wasn’t sure exactly how to convey her concern without sound like she was being insulting. 

Ianthe sighed and leaned back, giving Penny more room. “We look like we’d be popular. Most people are terrified of my fiendish heritage and my size.” She fiddled with the end of her tail with a pair of hands and locked the others behind her head, giving a slight flex to the muscles on her arms. “Zeena is the life of the party. Everyone likes her till she smiles and they see she’s a vampire.” Ianthe shrank, giving a pitiful smile to Penny. “We’re both friendly, it’s just that people are afraid of us.”

“And she won’t try to bite me?” Pennie ran a hand over her neck, imagining that bubbly girl from the crystal pinning her down and draining the life from her. 

“No, it's illegal at her age..and you would still have to give permission.” Ianthe answered quickly. “You just have to put up with her being extroverted enough for twenty people.”

“I don’t want to be in debt.” Penny tried another route. Ianthe nodded.

“Think about this as doing us a favor.” Ianthe countered. “I cover your dorm costs, if I can, and you take up the stop so they don’t drop a random person on us.” She held out one clawed hand.

“And you promise that you two are ok with me?” Penny emphasized the last word. Ianthe smiled and pushed her hand forwards, the tips of the claws nearly touching the smaller woman’s chest. A wavering smile formed on Pennie’s face and she grabbed the hand.

Ianthe pulled Penny into a hug with her lower arms and held up the crystal with her upper hands. “Hey, Uncle!” Penny looked up and let out a small scream as a dangerous skull loomed over her. 

“Hey Ianthe, how are you? Missing home already? You’ve barely been gone for a day. You know, this isn’t a great start to your adventure.” He spoke with mock sincerity.

“Hardy har. No, I did my cry earlier.” She knew Al wouldn’t panic or tell anyone about her crying, so she knew she could tell him. “I met someone who’s going to the same school. Her many is Penny. She’s a scholarship student like me. Unfortunately, she can’t afford a dorm, and Zeena and I have a free space in our suite.”

“And you want to know if I can cover it?” For how forgetful Al was, he was sometimes surprisingly perceptive. Ianthe smiled sheepishly. “I’m not doing anything else with the wealth. I will cover this semester. Between the semesters, we can go on an adventure and you can use what you find to help pay for the next semester.”

“Really? You’re going to force me to spend time with you to cover this?” Ianthe glared at him through the crystal. “Fine, you win. We’ll join you for that adventure.” She shoved the crystal away, Al’s laughter still trailing from it as she cut the connection. “Well, you know have a place to live for this semester.”

“Thank you.” Penny smiled up at her new friend. “I promise that I’ll be the best roommate ever. You won’t even notice I’m there.”

“No, don’t do that.” Ianthe softened her voice. “We don’t want you to just be a space filler. We want to be your friend.” Penny smiled. “Now, do you know how to play Convalesce?” Penny shook her head. “Well, we have a few days and I’m going to teach you. If I don’t, Zeena will win the shirt off your back.”

Pennie quickly crossed her arms over her chest. “Is she really that good?”

“She’s ruthless, and even more so to people she finds cute.” Ianthe winked at Penny. Penny bit her cheek nervously. It sounded dangerous, rooming with these two. She looked down at herself. The vampire found her cute? She swallowed hard. Nodding, she looked up at Ianthe.

“Teach me.” For the next few days, Ianthe and Penny spent most of their time playing Convalesce or talking about their upcoming classes. They realized they were taking the same intro level alchemy and physics courses. Looking at their schedules, they realized their Tuesdays and Thursdays would be spent together in class and the labs for the classes. 

“I’ve never had any…official schooling. I don’t know what to expect. What about you?” Penny asked. 

“We had to go to basic, it’s the law.” Ianthe said. “However, I’ve never been to any of the classes in the City of Mirrors. This would be a better question for Zeena.” Ianthe stood, stretching her wings one at a time. “Gods, I cannot wait to get out of here.” She looked out the window. One of her lower arms waved Penny over. Nervously, Penny moved Charkassus’s head from where she had been scratching it on her lap to the bench. She hopped over to the window and looked out. 

“I can’t see past you.” Penny called out. Laughing, Ianthe moved behind the smaller woman and wrapped a lower arm around her waist, giving her leverage to lean further out. Penny gawked at the size of the city. It was larger than Karak city, its profile clear against the horizon. More spectacularly, there were seven tall towers, hundreds of feet high, with the thinnest one being a kilometer square. These buildings were covered in reflective glass, standing like giant mirrors of the world around.

“Are…are those buildings?” Penny squeaked when Ianthe pulled her back inside. 

“Yup. People live in them too. Each of the great noble houses controls one of them. The largest of them is run by the Steelen clan. We are headed to the stout one in the back. That is the Galliford tower. They have some the most advanced workshops. Some of them are so advanced you can get confused just looking at them.”

“You sound as if you’ve been in them before.” Penny was listening with rapt attention. 

“It pays to have parents who were adventurers.” Ianthe smiled. She then looked down at her body. “And sometimes it can just be weird.” They both smiled at her words. There was a slight shift and a long whistle as the train started slowing down. “We’re almost there. I’m going to change into something clean.” She quickly stripped down to her panties and bra. Folding her clothing, she stowed it in her suitcase and pulled out a pair of nice green breeches, a black tunic with white bordering, and a green sleeveless shirt. Penny blushed as her new friend stripped to her undergarments in front of her and got redressed. 

“Sorry, I didn’t think to check if you’d mind.” Ianthe rubbed the back of her neck. 

“It’s ok. It’s just never happened before.” Penny swallowed. “It looks good on you.” While the clothing was not tight on her body, her form was still visible under the layers of clothing. “Does your vest tie in the back because of your wings?”

“Yup!” Ianthe turned around so Penny could see the back of her clothing. “All of my clothing has to be specially modified. That’s why most of my dresses are backless. It’s cheaper than modifying them. Go ahead, you can mess with it.”

Penny started examining the cut of cloth, intrigued at the ingenuity of the stitching and the openings. She started peeling away some of the cloth to get a better look when her fingers brushed the underside of Ianthe’s wing, causing it to shoot out straight, nearly knocking the small elf on her back. 

“Sorry! That was a really sensitive part.” Ianthe danced away from Penny. “At least I didn’t have my weapons on me yet.” She pulled on a wide belt, on which was a pair of curved sabers and a pistol with three white glowing crystals slotted into thin loops on the main belt. “I can leave if you’d prefer to change by yourself…” She offered once her boots were back on.

“Th…that’s ok, I don’t have anything I want to change into.” Penny nervously chuckled. “I don’t have too many clothes. A few changes of casual and three for classes.” She did pull out a belt with a few pouches and put it on. There was a crystal shard carved into the shape of a distaff slotted into it. “There, the image of a young witch.” 

“And her dashing companion.” Ianthe struck a mock-heroic pose. Charkassus blew a whuff of air from their nose. “Like you would know.” She planted her hands on her hips. The dragon chirruped and stood, stretching as much as possible in the cramped train car. 

Once the train stopped, they grabbed their luggage and slowly made their way off the train. Penny could clearly see the struggle on Iathne’s face as she tried to keep her pace normal while lugging both trunks. Charkassus wasn’t making it easier, occasionally nipping at Ianthe’s tail. When they got out, they saw the large station platform was busy with people leaving trains and guards checking papers and keeping the passengers safe. 

“This way to customs. Have your passport?” Ianthe asked. “Stop that, you infernal dragon.” She flicked her tail at Charkassus’s head, forcing them to dodge around Penny. It sent a small jolt of electricity at Ianthe, causing her to yelp slightly. 

Penny pulled out her passport and got into line behind Ianthe. As they waited, they noticed guards moving through the crowd, separating people into different lines to have their passports checked. Ianthe was bouncing impatiently, looking around and wondering when their turn would come. 

Penny was looking in the opposite direction when a figure blurred past her, slamming into Ianthe. The large fiendish woman stumbled, caught unaware by her tackler. “You’re here!” Zeena let go of her taller friend and smiled up at her. She was wearing a heavy black dress, covering her from wrist to jawline to feet. She had black gloves on her hands and a large hat hanging off the back of her neck. “And this must be the pretty Penny you told me about!” 

Before Penny could act, the vampire had jumped on her and was hugging her gently. She was only an inch or two taller than Penny, still being dwarfed by Ianthe. “My dear, you’re all skin and bones! I need to fatten you up!” She smiled, her fangs clearly showing. Penny couldn’t help but smile back as she looked into the deep golden eyes. Zeena let go quickly. “I’m sorry, I forgot proper introductions. I’m Zeena Belothdetha Imisk, first daughter of the Imisk house and Margaft of Emil’s Ford and Heffnet. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” She dipped a swift curtsy to Penny.

“P…Pentalesky Olveta, but you can just call me Penny.” She sputtered out. 

“Well Penny, I’ll wait here till you two are through customs and we can go drop your stuff off. I hope you’re hungry.” Again, the smile with fangs.

“Stop teasing her, Zeena.” Ianthe grabbed her friend around the waist with one of her free arms and lifted the vampire screaming with laughter off her feet. “Still, a nice meal would be a good way to welcome you to the City of Mirrors. What do you say?” 

Penny looked at the two of them. One, a large fiendish young woman with enormous wings and a tail behind her, and the other a giggling vampire hanging mostly limp in her arms. “Sure, you choose. I have no idea what’s good here.”

Ianthe and Zeena looked at each other, then at Penny. Together, they said, “We’re going to Flywheel.”


	3. Chapter 3

“Are we really going in this one?” Penny asked, gawking at the skyscraper. “It’s as tall as a mountain.” 

“Yeah, this is going to be our home for the next semester.” Ianthe’s upper hands waved at the skyscraper. “Let’s go to our rooms and grab a bite to eat.” Zeena looped one of her arms into Penny’s and led her through the wide front doors. Penny gasped with amazement as they entered the tower. 

The middle of the tower was hollow for the first twenty floors, letting them see all of the people looking over the railings and crossing the bridges to get from one side to another. People were bustling around them; shopping, gossiping, eating, laughing, and going about their work. There were small creatures flying too and fro, some of them mechanical and some organic. In the center there was a tall tower with doors at every level. 

“Those are the elevators. They will take us up to the University and the Aerie where we will live.” Zeena was walking backwards, practically pulling Penny with her. 

“Don’t worry. It’s overwhelming at first.” Ianthe put a hand on Penny’s shoulder. “Just focus on us and we will get you through here. We can take our time exploring.” Penny nodded and they started making their way through the crowds. Most people gave them a wide berth when they saw Ianthe and Charassuk. While the city was heavily cosmopolitan, there were very few with fiendish blood and most people had only ever heard tales of dragons. Ianthe had learned to accept this as she grew up. It wasn’t something she could change, and it made getting through the crowds easier. 

There were multiple different elevator sizes. Some were large, nearly thirty feet by twenty, for industrial deliveries. Then there were the smaller ones for a score of people to travel between the floors. The ones they headed to was one of the small six person conveyors that were meant for travel far up the tower. 

Penny’s eyes were wide as they took off for one of the upper floors. “This is amazing!” She started looking at the mechanical parts that were whizzing by. “This is more than I could have hoped for.” Zeena smiled up at Ianthe. 

“You’re cute when you’re so excited. I cannot wait to see how you enjoy your classes.” Her voice was husky as she watched Penny. 

“I…I just love finding out how things go together. My people have this taboo about the body and messing with it. We leave that to the clerics to heal, but we cannot go rooting around in it. Mechanics are a way I can figure out how things are put together without breaking the taboo.” Penny looked at them. “Is that odd?”

“You ask the Vampire and the magic-warped fiend if your taboo is odd?” Ianthe looked down at her new friend. She shrugged. “I’ve heard weirder.” 

“Thanks. And speaking of classes, Zeena, I’m sorry I was rude. What classes are you taking?” Penny asked. Zeena’s smile grew larger.

“Just the standard for nobles really, along with some basic alchemy classes.” She looked down. “Not too exciting I know. I have my duty to my people first, so I will live vicariously through you two smartypants and just see you at home.” 

“Aren’t you taking intro to Alchemy with me, and magical theory?” Ianthe asked. “We chose those classes specifically to work our schedules together.”

“I am.” Zeena smiled. It took her a moment to realize the implications. “You are in those classes too! That’s wonderful.” Ianthe rolled her eyes at her friend’s exuberance. 

“Do I need to tattoo your schedule to your wrist?” Ianthe threatened playfully. 

“You would not dare harm this unblemished skin with your brutish ways.” Zeena replied in mock horror. She hid behind Penny. “Protect me from this vicious demon. She wants to corrupt me.”

“Stand back.” Ianthe entered an exaggerated fencing stance, her hands empty. “Do not let her seduce you. She needs to learn how to be responsible.”

Zeena placed her hand on Penny’s shoulder, giving her a pout. “Will you really abandon me?” Penny was getting slightly overwhelmed with her two roommates. Dropping her bags, she took a pen from one of her belt pouches and grabbed one of Zeena’s arms. She quickly wrote ‘Class, TTH, 10 & 2 W/ 4arms & cutie’. 

“Now it looks like you wrote it.” Penny muttered. She tucked the pen away quickly and grabbed her bags, head lowered in fear. Zeena’s mouth hung open and Ianthe started laughing. 

“To think I would be betrayed by someone so cute!” Zeena gave a soft, melodramatic wail. Penny smiled, realizing they wanted her to join in.

“Don’t worry if you don’t get it right away.” Ianthe leaned in. “We have known each other for nearly a decade. You’ve only known us less than a week.” The elevator stopped and they walked out. Zeena lead them down one of the halls, taking random twists and turns till she got to a door with their names on it. 

“This is our suite. We each have our own room. I already took the one without any windows.” Zeena opened the door with a flourish. Penny and Ianthe both sighed in relief when they saw the very basically provisioned common room. They both had been worried Zeena had already decorated it. “Your rooms are pretty much the same, and you have balconies.” She handed a small pair of keys to each of them. “These are your room and suite keys. If you lose it, you need to pay for a new one.” 

“Don’t you want a balcony?” Penny asked, sliding the keys onto the chain around her Distaff charm.

“No. The sun does not get along with me.” Zeena walked over to the room farthest from hers. “Perhaps you would like this one Penny? It does not share a wall with ours, so you will have some quiet if you like.”

“Oh…are your rooms normally loud at night?” Penny asked nervously.

“No. I was just thinking if you wanted privacy.”

“Thanks. I’ll take the one next to you if you don’t mind.” Zeena raised her eyebrows and opened the other door. Penny walked passed her and dropped her bags on the bed. 

“Do you want to unpack first or get food first?” Ianthe called from her room. 

“Unpack.” Zeena called. “We can wait for food till you both feel ready.” Ianthe started removing her books and equipment, setting the books to the small shelf near the balcony and her weapons and armor on the rack provided. Ianthe looked out of the window. She wanted to go for a fly badly. 

“Do you mind if I go for a fly?” She called out. When no one replied, she threw the door to the balcony open and jumped off into the wind. Charkassus was right behind her, jumping into the wind.  
The wind was more powerful than anything she had ever experienced. Charkassus had flown this high before, but Ianthe had never tried flying this high. The wind caught her and she started tumbling right away. The wind was pulling at her clothing and buffeted her wings about her. Charkassus noticed his mistress tumbling and flew down to her, grabbing onto her belt to stop her tumbling. 

No longer spinning, Ianthe was able to spread her wings and get some purchase on the air. She shot forwards, finally in control of her flight. Another gust of wind buffeted her, but she was ready and was able to keep from tumbling. Pumping her wings, she tried to ascend. The wind grew more powerful as she got closer to her room. Zeena and Penny were both leaning over her balcony, waving her back.  
Ianthe’s breath was coming in ragged gasps when she slammed into the railing, her roommates grabbing onto her and pulling her over onto solid ground. “What did you think you were going to do?”  
Zeena asked, face ashen. “The wind may have killed you!”

Ianthe was shaking as her friends checked her over. She was exhilarated and terrified. “I…I…I didn’t realize the winds. Ah!” She screamed in pain as Penny touched the base of one of her wings. “It hurts. I think I pulled a muscle.” Tears welled in her eyes from the pain. 

“Good. Maybe this pain will make you think before scaring me to death again!” Zeena hugged her close.

“It looks like you won’t be able to fly for a few weeks.” Penny said, looking at the wing. She had her small distaff charm out, emitting a soft pink glow. “I can’t do anything about it right now other than rub a salve on it. I would have no idea how to bind this.” 

Ianthe hung her head as she was led to her bed. Zeena helped bare her back so Penny could rub the ointment on her. Charkassus laid its head across her lap, purring deeply. Ianthe shivered as the cold cream touched her skin, a slight sizzling noise evident of the heat coming off her body. “Thank you.” She sighed, her wings spreading apart gently as she relaxed. 

“You’re going to have to keep your wings close to you for now, at least till the muscle heals.” Penny put her ointment away. 

“Yes mom.” Ianthe replied automatically. Penny blushed, causing Zeena to laugh.

“Until the fledgling learns to fly.” Penny ventured a jab. Ianthe winced as she tried to smile. “Now, it’s dinner time and I was promised a lovely meal.”

Zeena gasped in mock surprise. “Give her a little responsibility and she takes charge. Not only cut, but so fierce.” She helped string up Ianthe’s clothing. “How could I not get you something to eat.”

They were silent till they were on the elevator down to Flywheel. Penny was looking down at her feet. “Is this what an adventurer’s life is like?”

Ianthe looked over at Penny. “Dangerous? Yes. But it’s also boring too. Sometimes you may be traveling for weeks with nothing happening, and then there is three minutes of all-out, bloody, dangerous, and terrifying fighting.”

“Why did you say I would join you and your uncle for an adventure this summer then?” Penny panicked as they stepped off the elevator. “I’m not a fighter.”

“You got roped in as well?” Zeena asked. “She already roped me in halfway through the summer.”

“Don’t worry. Uncle Al isn’t going to have us do anything too dangerous.” Ianthe threw over her shoulder as she walked to a large store front. Flywheel was a large establishment, taking up nearly three hundred feet of store front. All of the tables and chairs were gear and simple machine themed. It was late enough that the end of the day rush was starting. Grabbing her friends, Ianthe pulled them into line. 

“Welcome, how many in your party.” The young dwarf at the hostess lectern asked. 

“Three. One Vampire.” Zeena spoke up. The dwarf blanched for a moment before continuing with his previous smile. 

“Of course, please follow me.” He smiled nervously and lead the group to a small section in the back of the restaurant. While they were still in the main dining area, it was a section that was not easily observed by anyone not making an effort to observe the area. “Your waiter will be with you soon.”

“I hope you two do not mind sitting back here.” Zeena muttered, seemingly deflated. 

“N..no it’s ok.” Penny stammered. “I like being out of crowds.” She was silent for a moment before coming to a decision. “Why did they put us back here?”

“No one really likes seeing a vampire eat.” Zeena played with her silverware setting. “It is something we understand. We represent something…terrifying to people, and we would rather not raise their ire by reminding them all the time. I hope you are ok with it?” It was more of a question.

“I…I should be, seeing as how we are roommates.” Penny bit her lower lip. “Can you eat, you know, regular food?”

“Sort of.” Ianthe replied for her friend. “It all tastes like ash unless it’s drowning in blood.” She leaned in to Penny. “You get used to the smell.” 

“Just like she will get used to the smell of your sulfurous…Hey! Do not hit me with your tail!” Zeena glared at Ianthe.

“Don’t listen to her. She likes to think hers smell like roses.” Ianthe drawled. Penny was looking between the two arguing young women when she saw the slight smiles on their mouths. 

“They would if I did.” Zeena stuck her tongue out at Ianthe. 

“So what was that time in the throne room.” Zeena nearly jumped over the table, beet red, when their waiter arrived. He was a boy around their age, with sandy hair and tanned skin from spending most of the summer outside. 

“My name is Aris and I will be your server tonight.” 

“Thank you Aris.” Zeena changed her attention to their server. “I will have the blood soup and my friend here will have a wonderful steak, rare.” She motioned to Ianthe. Turning to Penny, she looked expectantly. 

“I’ll have the Druid Delight.” She answered. “I’m vegetarian.” Zeena chuckled politely. 

“And we will all have some water.” Ianthe added. Aris wrote the orders down and hurried away. Ianthe looked over at Penny. “You’re a vegetarian? I hope you don’t mind that we are both very…body oriented with our foods.”

“As long as it isn’t still wriggling or you don’t try to feed it to me, I’m ok.” They shared a small smile as they waited for their meal to arrive. When it finally came, Ianthe had a large steak that was pink through the middle and a heaping of vegetables to the side. Zeena was given a large, bulbous glass filled with thick blood. When Zeena brought it up to her lips, her throat didn’t move, but the liquid level started decreasing. When she pulled the glass away, Zeena’s lips had become a dark red from the blood.

“It takes a lot to get used to that.” Ianthe grunted, sharp teeth sawing through the piece of steak in her mouth. “It’s easier if you just focus on your meal.” 

When they had finished and paid their tab, Zeena lead them to the campus itself. It was on the other side of the large tower from their rooms. Similar to the bottom of the tower, the whole area of the university was open space. There were a few buildings in the open space, most of them lecture halls and workshops. They all had a mechanical look to them, with pipes and ears entering and exiting at seemingly random places. The entire enclosure was lit by small, gently pulsing crystalline spindles. “That over there is the Hall of Magus. It is the main hall for magical testing, experiments, and workshopping. Over there are the Lecterns. Those are lecture halls for all subjects, from politics, to war, to magical theory. Most of our days will be in those two buildings. The Catalogue is the library. There are a few more buildings, but they are located elsewhere in the city and are used for some of the other programs. I don’t know if any of us have classes this year that would take us to one of them.”  
“What kinds of classes would we need for those?” Penny asked, inching her way over to the library. Seeing where she was headed, Zeena changed her direction and lead her friends to the library. 

“Those are mostly agriculture and husbandry classes, and a few survival and tactics ones, that are held outside of the main campus.” Zeena replied. She opened the door to the Catalogue. “There are also some supplemental courses for Druids and witches.” 

“Are any of you Druids?” A voice behind them asked. Penny and Zenna jumped in surprise. Ianthe merely turned around, seemingly unphased. Behind them was another student, dressed in the beaded and feathered leathers of a Calia tribesman. His tunic only went halfway down his biceps and halfway down his thighs. He was wearing long pants with heavy soled boots. A vest was tied together over his shirt, The soft green standing out from the tan of the tunic and pants. His body was thickset, from his waist down to his heavy fingers. In one arm, he was carrying a stack of books. In the other, he was currently stroking the head of cobra wound around his upper arm. He had a hopeful smile on his broad face. 

“No. Penny’s just never been here before, and the curly one was giving her a tour.” Ianthe answered when the other two seemed to still be stunned. “I’m Ianthe. The curly one is Lady Zeena, and this one is Penny.” She motioned to each of them with different hands. With her fourth hand, she reached out to the student. “It’s nice to meet you.” 

“Name’s Hammah.” He gripped the clawed hand and shook it after a moment. Ianthe smiled as she stared at her. After a few moments he realized what he was doing and turned to view them as a group. “So, if you’re not Druids, what are you all here for?”

“Magic minor with a battle administration and political major.” Ianthe replied, folding her lower pair of arms to accentuate the muscles and draw his attention to her belt. 

“I am here for politics and administration mostly.” Zeena smiled at him. 

“Mechanic and alchemy double.” Penny piped up. 

“Well, I would love to stay and chat, but I have a meeting I need to get to. I’m sure I’ll see you all around.” He smiled at them, heading past them to one of the conference rooms.

“Well, it is nice to see some friendly people even before the first day of class.” Zeena smiled as Hammah left. “He’s kind of cute. Cuddly, almost.”

“Do you ever think of anything else?” Ianthe groaned as they left the library to check where all of their classes we going to be.

“Of course I do.” Zeena pouted. “For instance, he did not blanch at either of use, although he did stare, and seemed very sure of his bearings. The fact that he is here and part of a meeting says he has been here at least two years. And that snake is one that prefers cooler climates. Judging by his clothing and the snake, he comes from near my town.”

Ianthe clapped with both pairs of hands. “Ok, I retract my previous statement. That was impressive.” They wandered around for the next hour, getting the layout of the land. Stopping at the administration building, they made sure Penny’s room was fully paid for. After receiving their ID cards, they were on their way back to their rooms. As they wound their way up the stairs, they heard Hammah a level above them.

“…is cute.” The heard the last part of the conversation.

“And you just walked by them? We wouldn’t have minded if you were a little late because you were talking to a cute girl.” A second voice said. Ianthe traded glances with Penny and Zeena. A wicked smile crossed the vampire’s face and she started moving up the stairs faster. Ianthe and Penny hurried behind her, eager to see what Zeena was up to.

“They’re first years looking around. I wasn’t about to interrupt that.” Hammah sounded like he had little interest in the conversation. “I stopped to talk as it was because I thought one of them was talking about druids. It drew my attention.”

“Did you at least get their names?” The second voice asked. As the trio rounded the corner, they saw the other speaker was a dwarf wearing the same style clothing Hammah was. They were both on the landing, talking near the door.

“He did.” Zeena said, causing the dwarf to jump in surprise. Hammah merely started laughing gently. “Does he remember our names?”

“You are Lady Zeena. From your accent and dress, I’m guessing you are from the Stromkirk lands?” He turned to Penny. “Miss Penny. You’re here for alchemy and something to do with machines.” He shrugged apologetically. 

“You didn’t say they were vampires and devils.” His companion muttered, opening the door and leaving the stairwell. Hammah winced as the door closed behind him. 

“I’m sorry Granthok. His family is…” He seemed to be at a loss of words that he wished to use.

“Closed-minded?” Ianthe offered. Hammah nodded. 

“How much of that did you hear?” He asked after a few moments of silence. His snake was currently curled atop his books that were sitting on a bench nearby. As he spoke, it quickly woke and slithered over to him, recognizing the strained tones in his voice. 

“Enough to be embarrassing.” Zeena snapped. “Now, I think you for the apology tendered on your companion’s behalf, but I think I need to retire to my room right now. Penny, will you escort me?” Standing up straighter, she stalked off past Hammah. Penny, eager to be out of the tense situation, followed close behind Zeena. 

Once they heard the door of the next level close, Ianthe started to move closer to Hammah. “You may want to get your friend to apologize. Zeena can hold a grudge for a long time.”

“He’s more of a classmate than friend…but I will try.” Hammah answered. He half turned before looking back at Ianthe. “Please tell your friends that I truly am sorry. If you ever need a hand with any pets or familiars, you can always call on me. I’m in room thirty-two when I’m here. If I’m not, you can always contact me on this.” He pulled out a crystal. After a moment of hesitation, Ianthe pulled out hers and touched them together. After a moment, there was a hum and the crystals were connected. Hammah nodded and walked out of the stairwell. 

When Ianthe got back to their suite, she saw that Zeena’s door was closed. Penny was sitting in the main room. “Is it always like that?” She asked.

“Yeah. Outside of Stromkirk lands and my house, people always have that idea about us. They see us as monsters, either to be shunned or tamed.” She dropped onto the couch, her bulk causing Penny to bounce slightly. “She’ll be back to herself soon. Just be yourself around her, and don’t pity her. Treat her like any other friend.”


	4. Chapter 4

“Ready for class?” Ianthe pounded on Zeena’s door. “We don’t want to be late!” Slowly, the door opened and Zeena stepped out. Her eyes were rimmed red from crying and she was still in the same long black dress from the previous day. Her large purse that carried her books and supplies was resting on the ground, dragging behind her. Without being asked, Ianthe gingerly took the bag and held it in one of her lower hands. “Ready?” Ianthe asked again, purposefully ignoring her friend’s dour mood. 

There was a loud clatter from Penny’s room as she rushed out, hair askew and bag partially open. “I overslept!” She squeaked. “Wish I could stay!” As she got to the pair, Penny noticed Zeena’s tearstained eyes. Nervously, she ran up and gave her friend a peck on the cheek. “Have a great day! I’ll see you tonight.” At the peck, Zeena blushed and looked down more, but Penny and Ianthe could see the smile on their friend’s lips. 

“Thanks.” Ianthe mouthed to Penny as she ran out of the room. “And I’ll be with you for most of the day today.”

“Is that what the weapons are for?” Zeena asked, her voice a little rough. “To protect my honor?” She looked up with a piteous expression on her face. It took Ianthe a moment to realize it was being faked.   
“Yes, you silly ditz.” Ianthe pulled Zeena into a crushing hug. “Also because I have fencing practice later, but mostly to unnecessarily defend your honor.” Zeena chuckled and took her bag back. After slinging it, she straightened her dress and smiled weakly. 

“Let’s go. I’d hate for us to be late.”

Classes in the morning were duller than anything Ianthe had really experienced before. As she looked over the syllabus for her politics class, she sent up a prayer to The Wanderer that she was not nobility, and that she probably wasn’t going to be. While some diplomacy would be great, with how many nobles she had as friends, she knew she would never be a diplomat. Math and physics were slightly better, as she had always loved numbers, which bled into their Magic theory class. This was the one class Zeena and Ianthe did not share. 

The final class Ianthe attended for the day was her fencing class. Zeena, as a noble, rejoined her. It was a staple class for most nobles, along with their politics and management classes. Zeena was already in her practice clothing when Ianthe got there. She had changed from the long dress to a short-sleeved shirt and pants. On one hip was a short rapier. On the other was a quiver with arrows. She was currently stringing a lop-sided longbow of a variety Ianthe had never seen. 

Most of the other students had similarly styled swords; rapiers, sabers, main gauche. These were duelist weapons, not battlefield weapons. She only saw a few of those. Her scimitars and pistol, Zeena’s odd long bow might be useful, and a pair of people armed with bone tipped spears. Curious about the spears, she headed over to the pair. As she got close, she saw that one of them was Hammah and the other was the dwarf he had been talking to on the stairs. 

Hammah was the first to notice her. He smiled as she approached. “Good Afternoon.” He said with a disarming smile. “I didn’t realize we were going to be in the same arms class.” 

“Neither did I.” Ianthe said, trying to remain neutral. Hammah was ok, but his friend was rude and she didn’t like him already. “Do you mind if I ask you about your spears? Why do you use bone? Why not steel?” She half drew her scimitar to show the metal on it.

“Because,” Granthok’s voice was edge with distain. “Druids only use that which is grown. We have no want, as nature provides for us.”

Ianthe tried to ignore his distain. She rested her lower hands on her scimitar’s hilts to keep them from turning into fists. “How do you keep the blade sharp?” 

“We use the beaks of large terrestrial birds for spears.” Hammah cut off his companion. “With certain magic, we can keep the beak itself in a sort of living state so it keeps growing. When it is not used often enough, it needs to be ground down. It’s as hard as steel, but less physical maintenance. However, it does require us to attune our spirits with it, so there is that.”

“Must you tell her all our secrets? Maybe you should let her know the location of the sacred grove? Or maybe explain to her how to complete the Rites?” Granthok rumbled, nose flaring in anger. 

“I’m not giving away any secrets. Just because I tell her why it works, not how, doesn’t mean she knows our secrets.” Hammah replied patiently.

Before anyone else could reply, a voice meant to pitch over battlefields rang out in the practice room. “Line up!” The largest dwarf Ianthe had ever seen walked into the middle of the room. At five feet tall and three feet at the shoulders, he was a dense block of muscle. Ianthe quickly ran over to Zeena and got into line beside her. “I am your weapons instructor, Master Kamon. In here, while weapons training, my word is what will keep you alive, so obey it like the law. All right, everyone who has had at least six months of weapons training, take one step forwards.” Most of the class steeped forwards. “Alright, one year. Two years. Five years.” As he lengthened the time for each stage, less people stepped forwards. In the end, only five of them were standing in the last group, Ianthe and Zeena among them. 

The teacher looked around. “Good! Gather in your groups and I, or one of my squires, will come around and get a better understanding of what your abilities are.” Ianthe was disheartened to learn the Granthok was in their group as well. Hammah was in the previous group. In there group was a pair of humans, both standing away from the darkly clad heiress and the tall demoness. 

When Master Kamon came over, he noticed the three smaller groups within the group without comment. He went to the two humans first, then to Granthok. Finally, after asking all of his questions, he came over to Ianthe and Zeena. He gave them a quick once over and went to his clipboard and papers. 

“Name?” He looked at Zeena. 

“Zeena Belothdetha Imisk.” She replied, wide smile on her face. 

“I assume you have training with those weapons? How long have you trained with each? What’s the most powerful creature you have killed? And, do you know any magic?” Despite the rote nature of the questions, they could tell the Weapons Master was intent on the answers.

“Yes. My father trained me with the sword for the past seven years. The bow for only the past four years, I was too small before then. I am barely large enough now for it.” She giggled slightly. Seeing the Weapons Master’s stern look, she cleared her throat and continued. “Other than the natural abilities of a Vampire, I have no magical abilities. I have not actually killed anything.” She gave him a hopeful smile. The Master merely wrote her answers down and nodded, turning to Ianthe. 

“Same questions, plus can you use all four at once.” The Master added.

“No, I can’t use all four at once yet.” Ianthe started.

“Yes you can! Remember telling me about that bandit raid?” Zeena cut in. Ianthe rolled her eyes.

“No, I cannot use weapons in all four at the same time, but I can cast with my lower arms while using my upper arms for weapons. My parents have been training me with the scimitars for the past ten years, and the pistol for the past eight…please don’t tell my mother that dad let me use guns at eight.” She fidgeted nervously. The Weapons Master actually chuckled. 

“Duly noted. And as mentioned, you fought against a bandit raid. Killed them with magic? How many?” 

“Well, my father killed most of them, and my dragon mopped up most of the rest. I only killed about two of them.” 

“Still, that’s more than I expect most people to have done by this age…a dragon. I would very much like to meet this dragon, especially if they are going to be travelling with you. You need to learn to fight as a team.” He nodded and walked away, his notes complete. “All right everyone! Line up in front of the targets. We will start with a simple skill demonstration for ranged weapons followed by melee weapons.”

The two hour class was over sooner than Ianthe had wanted it to be. She only hoped that alchemy and magic lessons on the next day would be more interesting. As they were packing up, Hammah came over to Ianthe and Zeena. “That is an interesting weapon.” He pointed to her gun. 

“Yeah, my father worked with Gillian Galliford to come up with the power crystals.” She held up one of the now dull cylinders. “Rather than bullets, it shoots energy.” She handed it out to Hammah. Gingerly, he took the crystal. It was a clear, golden cylinder.

“What type of energy?’ He asked, wary of the power crystal. He held it back to her. 

“These ones are radiant energy. It’s slightly safer to use than most others.” She took the crystal and slotted it in the gun belt.

“Can other forms of energy be used?” He asked.

“Yeah, depending on the crystal used.” Ianthe grabbed her bag and started walking with Zeena towards the exit. “Why, are you thinking of getting a pistol yourself.”

“Definitely not.” Granthok interjected. “It’s against the code. Why would you be curious about her pistol?” 

“What is your problem?” Zeena snapped at Granthok. “He is only curious about the power crystals and the sealing of power.”

“My problem, though none of your concern, is his dedication to our order and his apparent minor transgressions straying into being more…major impediments to his status in our order.” Garthnok looked down his nose at the taller vampire.

“And you think his association with us will hamper his position.” Zeena took a step forwards, her hand white knuckling around her rapier. 

“I would not be so crass as to say it.” He turned to Hammah. “Come on, we have another class to get to.” He grabbed Hammah and pulled him away from the pair. 

“Ianthe, may I borrow your gun?” Zeena out a hand. 

“No.” The reply was simple and forceful. One of her hands grabbed Zeena’s open hand. 

“Come on, can I just wing him?” When there was no answer, she turned so she was no longer walking backwards. 

Ianthe let the rest of the evening pass by. She took a quick shower before getting food with Penny and Zeena and talking about their day. She was glad to hear that Penny at least had a better day than they had. They all agreed tomorrow was going to be better.

The day dawned brightly, a rare sunny day in the City of Mirrors. Ianthe struggled out from under her covers, Charkassus weight parts of her down. With a final tug, she fell from the bed and crumpled on the ground. 

“That’s it, you lazy lizard. You’re coming to class with me from now on. No more sleeping all day and night.” The dragon merely murmured at her and sent a spark of electricity to make her hair stand on end. Without another word, she jumped on the dragon, arms spread. Charkassus was awake and moving within moments. 

Penny ran as a loud scream came from Ianthe’s room. She came in to see Ianthe’s wing hanging limply from her. “What did you do?” She asked, looking at the wing joint. 

“Stupid dragon. Stupid wind. Stupid wing.” Ianthe muttered. She screamed in pain as Penny checked the joint. 

“This is beyond what I can do for now. You need to see someone with healing magic or a doctor. What were you doing, wrestling with a dragon?” Penny admonished her roommate.

“They like to wrestle. Besides, they shocked me, so I had to get them back.” Ianthe said defensively. 

“That’s no excuse.” Penny said. “Now, who can we get you to?”

“Not University doctor. If they see my injury, they will keep me from weapons training and any excursions till I’m fully healed.” Ianthe pleaded. 

“But if we don’t go, it might not heal correctly.” Penny countered.

“And if it keeps you humble, I am all for that.” Zeena leaned against the door. She was wearing a bright blue long dress. “Must we force you, or will you come along nicely?” Ianthe grumbled but stood and followed Zeena and Penny from their rooms. 

On their way down the stairs, they ran into a familiar sight. Hammah was there, along with four others. Three of them were unknown, but they all recognized the fourth. Granthok noticed them first and immediately turned and left. The rest of the group, unsure what was going on, hesitated. Hammah turned.

“It’s almost getting predictable when you arrive.” He chuckled. “I’m sorry again for my companion’s attitude. I wish there was something I could do about that.” He smiled at them each, the smile growing fractionally warmer when he saw Penny. “Where are you all off to so early?”

“To see a healer.” Penny replied, feeling her cheeks flush as she saw all of them look at her. “Ianthe hurt her wing joint and we need to get it looked at and properly splinted.” She turned to Ianthe with the last part. 

“I could take a look at it first if you would like.” Hammah offered. “Then you wouldn’t have to be grounded.”

“Thank you!” Ianthe cried. “Save me from these two responsible people.” 

“Come along, we can use your place. Less likely for Granthok to cross your path again.” Hammah offered. 

“You work fast, Hammah.” Zeena started. “Barely have you known us for three days and you already ask to come back to our rooms.” His companions chuckled nervously. Zeena giggled before continuing. “Do not worry, we know your intentions towards our scintillating, winged friend are nothing but honorable.” She gave a flourished courtesy.

Slowly, they made their way back to the suite with Hammah. He had waved off his companions, who seemed only too happy to leave. When they got back to the room, they laid Ianthe on the table and undid the back of her shirt and vest. Ianthe’s tail wagged nervously when she felt Zeena unclasp her bra so Hammah could examine the area. 

“Penny, would you mind holding her wing like this?” Hammah held Ianthe’s wing out and waited for the smaller girl to take it. “Thanks.” He smiled at her, his broad face friendly and warm. He turned back to the joint. After examining it for a few moments, he shook his head. “Ok, I can fix this, but you will still need to take it easy for a few days. The ligaments will heal easily, but the bone is bruised.” He rubbed a small amount of cream off her joint. “What’s this?”

“I…I made that. It’s a balm for bruises…I thought it might work.” Penny answered. She felt as if he was a teacher looking down on a student who over reached her position. 

“It’s very nice. I can see why you are studying more alchemy. I could actually use this for the bone. Do you have more?” Penny nodded. “Can you grab some?” He took the wing from Penny when she went to get her cream. “How long have you known Penny?” He asked to pass the time.

“Only about a week.” Ianthe replied. “Met her on the train here from Karak. Convinced her to room with us.” Hammah nodded as Penny came back.

“Just spread some around her joint and rub it in.” He instructed gently. “Wait…you don’t mind if my magic touches you, do you?”

“Is it safe?” Hammah nodded. “Okay.” Penny was hesitant, but was nervous about saying no. As Penny started to rub the ointment in, a flare of turquoise power surrounded Hammah’s hand. He gently placed it over Penny’s as she worked in the ointment. 

“This is working my healing magic into the cream, which will get it to her bones.” He explained. Penny felt a strange heat in her hand as the energy from his hand enveloped hers. It was completely different from the heat entering her body from where his arm was resting against hers. 

Ianthe shuddered from the heat, her pain fading to a dull ache, finally disappearing completely. “That’s good. It’s so nice to know someone who can do some healing magic.” A lazy smile flitted on her face. 

“Well, now I guess we should talk about my rates…” Hammah laughed as Ianthe’s tail whipped around in an attempt to hit him, but ended up slapping Penny on the rump. “I’m kidding. I’ll do this one to make up for my roommate.”

“Your roommate insulted all of us.” Zeena replied. “Are you going to pay each of us back?” She put on an innocent face and looked at him with large, imploring eyes. 

“Don’t push your luck.” Ianthe murmured. “Besides, I doubt you need help getting a date.” Zeena stuck her tongue out. 

“Well, I should probably be going. We still have classes today.” He favored Penny with a final smile before turning away. 

When he was finally out of the room, Zeena chuckled wickedly. “I think someone has a crush.” She poked Penny in her ribs. 

“What? Him? No, he doesn’t have a crush on me.” Penny mumbled. 

“Of course he does.” Zeena bounced over. “You should ask him out.”

“We barely know each other!” She squeaked. 

“So, would it not be fun?” Penny shook her head, face beet red. “Why do you not want you? He is cute and he likes you.”

“It’s not that simple.” Penny replied. “Can I think on it?”

“Of course. I only want you to be happy. I am not saying marry him, or even bed him. I only think he would give you a nice night out.” Ianthe stood and started lacing her clothing as Zeena talked. “Have you ever had a boy, or even a girl, court you before?” Penny shook her head.

“All the more reason to not rush in.” Ianthe said. “Let her be Zeena. Let her get used to life on campus before you start having her go on dates. Now, are you ready for class?”


	5. Chapter 5

The three of them made it to their alchemy class just as the bell rang. Picking a bench at the back of the room, they slid into their seats and pulled out their notebooks. Charkassus sat patiently under the table, their head curling up onto the table.

“Why are we in the back?” Penny asked as the professor started the introductions. 

“Because I’m a tall woman with even taller wings that block a lot of vision.” Ianthe replied. “If you need to sit closer…”

“No, I’m fine back here, I was just curious.” Penny replied. They remained silent through the rest of the class as they listened to the professor. When they started stocking equipment on their bench, Penny took the lead, quickly piling everything they needed on the table and instructing her partners where they were to go. 

“Today, you will be making something fairly basic.” Professor Mythenon informed them. “You are going to make a potion to speak to animals. While the ingredients are not too easy to come by, making the potion is rather easy. Later, we will be going to harvest more of these ingredients, but for now, we will work on brewing the potion.”

Ianthe was set to work grinding the bones, being the strongest of the group by far. Zeena was measuring the liquids they needed, all while Penny chopped the rest of the ingredients into a mash. 

“Working together?” The professor, an elderly elf, asked them. 

“Y…yes.” Penny’s nervousness surfaced again. Her voice was cracking. “We will each be brewing our own potion, but it makes the work go faster to divide the set up.” The professor merely nodded and turned away to another group. He turned back and looked at the dragon head. Charkassus looked back and chirped. Raising an eyebrow, the professor remained silent and walked away. 

By the end of the class, the three of them each had a large flask of the Beast Tongue potion. Moving to the front of the room, they placed their flasks for the professor to grade. 

“Each of you take a half cup and drink it.” Mythenon instructed them. Drinking the potions, they each shuddered as the alchemical fluids coursed through their bodies. “Now, write down what my assistant is saying.” They turned to see a squirrel chittering away. As the potion took effect, they started to hear words rather than chitters. Quickly, they all wrote down the squirrel’s tired tirade about being used for this reason every year and no one making it any fun. 

“Um…” Penny started, a look of worry on her face. The professor rolled his eyes. 

“Ignore the meaning of his rant. He gets plenty of time with the older students and enjoys a wonderful life. He’s just a wretched and ungrateful squirrel.” His voice was resigned, as if he needed to do this with every student. The squirrel started cursing him out, making the three of them giggle. “I can see the potion is working.” He made a mark in his book. “You can go clean up.”

“Ready for the next class?” Ianthe asked as they washed their utensils. 

“I’m not sure. I can’t really cast magic.” Penny said, packing up their bags. 

“Do not worry. This is theory of magic, as well as the practice of magic. It should be more the flow of and theory of magical use. Only at higher levels do they make you cast spells. Can you imagine a bunch of first year students casting spells with no idea what they are doing?” Zeena finished drying the glasses Ianthe handed to her.

“Sounds like my home life.” Ianthe laughed. Seeing Penny’s confused expression, she continued as they left class. “Well, I have two brothers. One of them shows some magical talents. Then there are my neighbors. My aunts both have magic and six kids, all with magic to a greater or lesser degree.” Penny’s mouth dropped open. “What, not that many magic users where you are from?”

“No! In our tribe there were only the shaman and her apprentice out of a hundred of us.” Penny told them as they made their way to the Sideways Tower. This was a strange tower that stuck out nearly three hundred feet from the side of the skyscraper of Galliford. 

“Do not let her scare you.” Zeena threw a protective arm around Penny’s waist. “My father travelled with her family of adventurers for a few months. They are a very special case. Did you know that her mother was subject to a lot of experimental magic while she was pregnant…not that she knew she was at the time.”

“Oh, and what’s that supposed to mean?” Ianthe’s voice got a hard tint to it that Penny had never heard. Apparently this was a sore subject for Ianthe.

“Only that she should not try to compare herself to you or your life.” Zeena replied, a little subdued by the aura of anger that Ianthe was giving off. She placed a hand on her friend’s arm. “Your family has been at the crux of this world not once, but twice. You are born partially of magic itself.” They were outside of their classroom, standing near one of the large windows. Zeena had retreated to the back of the hallway, away from the sun coming through the window. 

Ianthe looked out the window and sighed. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have snapped at you.” In her mind, Ianthe was screaming. She hated that she was born the way she was. It wasn’t that she disliked her body, her family, or even her abilities. She hated that everyone either feared her or found her a curiosity. If she could have been born without any of the circumstance, she would take it. 

Her eyes narrowed. There was something flying in the distance. It was hanging in the air, clearly magical in nature. There were no wings flapping, no obvious energy sources, but there it was, just floating out there. Before Ianthe could think more on it, the bell rang and she turned to enter the classroom with her friends. 

Magic theory took up most of their afternoon. The class, one of the largest in the university, was divided into two sections. The first part was about how magic effected the world itself and the natural laws. The second part of the class was divided into the different schools of magic. Zeena had signed up for Illusions this semester, Penny signed up for artificing and magical binding, while Ianthe had signed up for Necromancy. 

“Why are you choosing such a dour subject?” Zeena asked as they were singing up. Ianthe showed her the page.

“No one else is in the class, and it could be interesting. Everyone is going for Evocation, Abjuration, and Illusion. I just want to understand the nature of the magic of life force.” Ianthe shrugged. “I’ll broaden my horizons later. It’s only the first semester.”

“Well, if you try to use that knowledge on me, there will be a reckoning.” Zeena flipped her hair playfully.

Ianthe walked into the Necromancy room with Charkassus. It was deserted. It was a small room, only about twenty feet square. Ianthe could see no other doorways to the room. The dragon bounces around the room, sniffing and examining everything it could reach. All around the room were carved mystical runes. As she wandered around the room, she took a closer look at the runes. She blanched as she recognized some of them. These were the same that were on her Uncle Al. 

“Why is the devil tongue written here?” She asked aloud to no one.

“Because,” a wispy voice answered. “Necromancy is the magic of life and death. And who better to handle death than those of the upper and lower planes.” Ianthe spun, tail slapping against the wall hard in surprise. Standing at the door was a humanoid covered in black robes. While made of fine silks, they were tattered and threadbare in places. Ianthe couldn’t make heads nor tails of the person in front of her. “The magic we will be using in this room is not for the faint of heart. It is not showy or bombastic like most other schools of magic. The necrotic forces we will be dealing with here are not forgiving, the way fire and lightning are.” Ianthe felt the creature’s presence growing and getting closer, despite it not moving. Fear gripped her heart and she could feel her voice catch in her throat. She glanced over at Charkassus, who was cowering under one of the tables. 

“I still want to learn.” Ianthe said, her voice barely a whisper. She wanted to say more, but her voice was still caught in her throat. Had her parents ever felt like this while adventuring? The thought entered her mind and caused her to laugh a little.

The presence faded. “Good!” The figure pulled down the hood and young elven face smiled at Ianthe. They had light olive skin with a mop of ruddy brown hair on their head. Tattoos snaked up from one side of her neck. “You can call me Ree.” They waved a hand and a hidden door opened. A skeleton walked out of the small room and started setting up a table in the middle of the room. 

“I’m Ianthe.” She held out one of her hands, confused by the odd look of the necromancer in front of her. “I don’t mean to stare…but…”

“I’m not what you expected?” Ree replied. “I know. Most people don’t think a necromancer can be anything but dour and dark. Personally, I don’t care to change that image with most people.”

“Why not?” Ianthe asked. She quickly followed with “And why not keep up the ruse with me?”

Ree was by the table and had an open book in front of her. She sighed. “If you get hit by fire or lightning, a powerful enough cleric and enough wealth can bring you back to life. The spell may even remove the damage caused to your body.” Ianthe nodded. Her Aunt Zilvra had been raised from the dead, and she had heard of it happening to others. “But with Necromancy, the necrotizing energy burns the soul as well. If you die with this magic…you don’t come back.” 

They let the words hang in the air. After a few moments, Ree continued. “But you actually resisted the fear I was putting you under. That was impressive. I haven’t had a student pass that in three years. I kind of want to be myself around my apprentices.” 

Ianthe looked at the book. It was a history of Necromancy. “How long will we be doing book work before we get to spells themselves?”

Ree chuckled. “As long as it takes.” 

Two hours later, Ianthe stumbled from the room in a slight daze. There had been so much information pushed into her brain that she could barely focus on walking. Ree chuckled as she stumbled away, before tossing her disguise back on and gliding away. The main room of the magic classes was filled with students filing out. They all moved out of Ree’s path and turned back to Ianthe. 

She could hear them start to whisper. Annoyance burned in her as she felt their judgement upon her. All four of her hands clenched and her wings spread slightly. Before she could do anything she knew she would regret, a bouncing mass of curls slammed into her, arms wrapping around her body. She looked down to see Zeena hugging her. 

“Class was amazing. I cannot wait to learn to see through illusions. Do you think I will be able to cast any?” Her face was open with excitement.

“Anyone can cast magic with enough practice.” Penny replied, coming up with a small stack of papers. “Please tell me you both got homework as well.” Zeena shook her head. “Ianthe, please tell me I’m not going to be the only one studying tonight?”

Ianthe shook from her stupor. Realizing what was asked of her, she looked between her friends. “No, I have some studying too. As they walked from the room, Zeena hung back. “What’s wrong?” Zeena pointed to the sun.

“The whole hall is filled with light. I was not prepared for that. I will burn up.” She shook, looking at the glare on the floor.

“We can’t leave you here.” Ianthe tried to think of a way around this. “I doubt my wings will cover enough of you.”

“It is ok, I can wait here.” Zeena shuffled back. As Ianthe and Penny watched their friend retreat, the light around them dimmed. Looking around, they saw the entire hallway had dimmed into a night-like darkness. Looking out the window, Ianthe could still see the sun shining. 

“All students must be gone from here when not in class.” Ree’s apparition appeared behind Zeena. “I will dim the sun for you, my child. But remember this lesson well.” Zeena gave a slight shriek at the professor’s sudden appearance and sprinted out of the classroom, disappearing into the main skyscraper before Ianthe and Penny could register what was happening. 

The hallways became bright again and Ree was gone. Ianthe was sure at the last moment her elven teacher was smiling. Still, what had just happened was creepy. “Was that your teacher?” Penny asked as they stood, rooted to the spot. 

“Yup.” Ianthe replied. 

“You still going to stay in Necromancy?” 

“Like the idiot I am.” Charkassus chirruped behind her, unconcerned about what just happened. “Yes, I’m going to feed you. Come on Penny, let’s make sure Zeena’s ok.”


	6. Chapter 6

“Are you going home for StarFall?” Zeena asked. It was late on an autumn afternoon. The sky was heavily overcast, threatening rain. They were all sitting on Penny’s balcony, books and homework in hand.  
“No, we really don’t celebrate that.” Ianthe flicked back in her book to find an answer. 

“It’s too far for me. My family might not even be around Karak at this time of year.” Penny replied. “And I have too much work to do. Not to mention the tickets are expensive.” Zeena and Ianthe winced. They both forgot at times that Penny wasn’t from a monied family.

“Are you going home?” Ianthe asked, writing an answer down on the homework sheet and using the information to fill in a power circle she was making on another sheet. 

“Yes. I will be making the long journey home. I do not know how I will survive the hour it takes to get home.” Zeena placed her hand on her head in a melodramatic display. They all laughed as she lamented the arduous travel she would face this upcoming weekend. “Well, if you two are not going home, what will you spend the long weekend doing?”

“I’ve heard there is a new club in the sub-levels. Maybe we could check it out, see if it is worth our lady’s time.” Ianthe smiled at Penny. Zeena puckered her lips at the double jab.  
“I…I’m not one for those places.” Penny buried her face in her book. “I’d rather just do some homework.”

“Come on, we can do that too. I only mean for one evening.” Ianthe batted Penny’s foot with her tail. “Then I promise we can study the rest of the weekend away.” She sighed.  
“Please?” Zeena pouted. “The thought of you curled up alone all weekend will make me sad.” 

“Fine!” Penny huffed, finishing her sentence. “You two are horrible.”

“I know, we’re monsters.” Ianthe replied, eliciting another chuckle from the rest of the group. 

The rest of the week passed without incident. Penny was thriving with her classes, already working on her first machine, a small wind up doll that walked with the mechanical power. Ianthe and Zeena fretted over their politics exam that was coming up at the end of the week. They took turns studying and fretting, which turned into another flying session for Ianthe. She made it five minutes this time before a powerful gust sent her flying into the wall, spraining her other wing.

When Hammah arrived, Ianthe was already laying on the table. She had insisted that towels be placed over her this time, as she didn’t like showing off that much skin to a stranger. Zeena had insisted Penny go get him and wouldn’t accept any other answer. 

“You know, I should start charging you for this.” Hammah said, rubbing Penny’s cream in with one hand while using his other to summon his healing energy. 

“And what would you consider charging?” Zeena asked. Ianthe was too relieved from the pain to focus on anything else. 

“Perhaps the recipe for this cream.” He smiled at Penny. She blushed but managed to smile back. 

“That’s not for sale.” Her voice squeaked.

“Maybe she can buy you some drinks?” Ianthe muttered. “We’re going to Combustion this weekend.” Penny flinched. Drinks at a club would be expensive, and she only had a few commons. She knew drinks would quickly ramp into nobles. 

While Ianthe held Hammah’s attention, Penny felt a tap on her shoulder. Zeena pressed a small purse into her hands. Opening it, Penny’s eyes widened as she saw a few golden royals in the purse. She shook her head. This was more money than she had ever held at one time. “Please. We are trying to get you on a date.” Zeena’s smile as so innocent that Penny couldn’t resist. She took the purse and hid it in her pocket. 

“I’m not taking a date as payment!” Hammah laughed. 

Ianthe hit him. “Not so loud!” She sighed. “Look, the drinks are the payment. The date is because we think it would be cute.” Hammah looked at Penny. Their eyes locked as they met. 

“Ok, I will take the drinks, but we will just be there as friends.” He offered. “I’d rather not have any date mixed with a payment. And, if we find we want to spend more time together, then we can go on a date. Does that sound fair?” He held out his hand. 

“Yes!” Penny answered quickly, cutting off her friends. “We’ll go as a group of friends this time.” She took his hand and shook it quickly. “Now, if you’re done, you should go so Ianthe can get dressed. We will see you Friday after class. Here, at seven.” She led him to the door. When the door closed behind a bewildered Hammah, Penny rounded on her suitemates. 

“What?” Ianthe asked innocently. She was sitting up, currently putting her clothing back on. Penny sighed. She wanted to be angry at them, but she also didn’t want them prying as to why she was so angry.

“Just let me go at my pace on this? Please.” Ianthe and Zeena felt a twinge of guilt at the desperation in Penny’s voice. 

“Ok. We promise only to meddle when you are stuck and will suffer any delay you feel necessary.” Zeena put a hand over her heart. 

“Yeah, me too.” Ianthe added. “If you need to talk about anything, you know you can with us.”

Penny looked at the two of them, trying to figure out how she got here. These two women were the complete opposite of her. One was a bubbly extrovert who seemed to have enough energy for dozen people. The other was a confident giant of a woman. Still they seemed to compliment her. If there was anyone she could feel she could trust, it would be them.

“Thanks.” She said, swallowing what she had been about to say. 

 

“I can’t do this.” Penny looked at herself in the reflective surface Ianthe had conjured. She was wearing one of her relaxing sets of clothing. It was a blue dress that reached down to her knees. It was short sleeved with a low vee-neck. Her small chest ensured that there wasn’t much cleavage to show off. Despite the lipstick and a small accent of eye shadow, her face and body still failed to give off a petite damsel her dress and make up were going for.

“Yes, you can.” Ianthe stood behind her. To help Penny feel like she fit, Ianthe had gone with a simple grey and black dress. It had wide sleeves that went to her elbow, and the skirts touched halfway down her shins. Despite having a larger bust, she wore her neck fairly high, only showing off a hint of collarbone. “It’s just for a few hours. And if you feel you need to leave at any point, I’ll bring you home.”

Penny fidgeted. She liked that Ianthe was trying to accommodate her, but she felt bad at the same time. She was doomed from getting out of the evening when a knock sounded at the door. The only way she would get out of the evening now was by stripping, and she was too terrified to even contemplate that route. 

Crossing the room in a few quick steps, Ianthe opened the door. “Hammah! Right on time. We just finished getting ready.” Ianthe looked over what Hammah had decided for his and Penny’s not-date. He was wearing a long vest of burgundy that went to his knees. Under it, he was wearing a gray short-sleeved shirt and pants. His thick body filled out his clothing, but not to the point where they seemed to stretch. Despite their common appearance, they were obviously well made. Penny, beckoned by the feeling of her impending doom, walked to the door. 

“You both look nice tonight.” He smiled neutrally. “You should lead, as I have no idea where we are going.” He fell into step with Penny as Ianthe led the way. 

“How’re your classes going? We only see you every other week.” Penny asked, speaking before an awkward silence descended. 

“Very well. By the end of the year I’ll be able to be inducted into my circle.”

“You’re circle?” Penny asked.

“Yes. Druids all belong to a different circle, each with a different specialization. Granthok and most of the people I’ve been hanging around are all Druids of the Land. They draw their powers from their native homelands, the places they will be guarding.” Hammah explained. “I’m what you’d call a shape-changer. I’ve always had had an affinity for shape-changing.”

“Really?” Ianthe looked over her shoulder. “Can we see?”

“Maybe later.” He smiled at Penny. “What about you? How are your classes?”

“Wonderful. I…I never had much formal training or schooling.” Penny blushed as they got onto the elevator. “My engineering classes are exciting and I’m even learning some magic theory.”

“Have you built anything?” Hammah asked.

“Yes!” She cursed. “Darn, it’s back in my room.”

“You’re welcome to come over and see it.” Ianthe added. “She’s got a small collection of half-finished projects.” The elevator doors slid open and they walked out, Ianthe leading the way again. “They’re all cute. She even got one to sing a lullaby.” 

“Ianthe!” Penny’s voice cracked.

“Really? Is the music from the mechanical parts or magically bound?” Hammah asked, curiosity piqued. Penny smiled. He wasn’t put off by hearing that she made a machine sing a lullaby. 

“Both.” She replied. She dove into the technical aspects of how she had made the little machine. When she got to the magical aspect, Hammah started to chime in, seemingly more at home with the discussion of magical application more than the engineering. 

“Three.” Ianthe said to the bouncer. She showed her ID. The lank half-orc examined their ID’s and placed a large red stamp on Penny and Hammah. Pulling out another ped, he placed a deep yellow one on Ianthe’s purple skin. As the ink was absorbed, it turned red.

“No drinks. Have fun.” He chuckled as Ianthe glared up at him. He turned away and focused on the next people in line. As they entered. Ianthe noticed a sign that said ‘Harmless Cantrips Only’.

“With no drinks, how will you pay me back?” Hammah teased lightly. 

“We can still get something non-alcoholic…” Penny suggested. 

“Fine. I guess that’s what this is for.” Ianthe pulled a small bottle from the inside of the back of her belt. It only held a few ounces, but was filled with a thick clear liquid. “Does anyone want some?”

“Sure.” Hammah agreed. Penny looked between them. 

“You don’t need to have any.” Hammah and Ianthe said at the same time. 

“Thanks.” Penny went up to the bar with the others. They ordered a trio of fruity drinks, as those were the only ones that could be made without alcohol. Penny paid the tab using the purse Zeena had given her. She felt bad spending her friend’s money, but, if she admitted it, it was fun to pretend she could purchase the drinks for her friends. 

When they got to a back corner of the club, Ianthe pulled her small flask out and poured the viscous liquid into hers and Hammah’s drink. She offered it one more time to Penny, but the smaller girl still refused. After using half the bottle, Ianthe put it back in her belt and mixed the drinks. As she drank, her whole body shivered. The alcohol was so potent she nearly fell over from the small sip. 

As they drank, they took in the atmosphere of the club. It was featuring the new style of music created by the mechanical devices that were making a comeback in the world. The music being played tonight was coming from a band playing what looked like mechanical plants. The music pulsed and crashed like waves upon a shore. The higher parts of the melody sounded like the mechanical calls of animals and birds, creating a synergetic dissonance with the underlying pulsing beat. 

They saw people dancing to the sway of the music. Some were dancing alone, while others had gathered in pairs or groups. Two magic using dancers had used a cantrip to make colored lights appear on their body. One of them had blues and greens form wavy lines on their arms and legs as they danced. The other, much shorter than their companion, was covered in red and yellow spikes, creating streamers of color behind them. 

“You care to dance?” Ianthe asked her friends, her voice raised to be heard over the music. She gulped down the rest of her drink and slid out onto the dance floor. People moved away from her to make room for her arms, wings, and tail. The alcohol flowing through her system added a surreal quality to the music and she started dancing. 

Hammah looked at Penny as they watched Ianthe get onto the dance floor. “Care to dance?” He asked. Penny nervously looked at the dance floor. Quickly, she grabbed his drink and took a mouthful, wincing as the alcohol melted its way down her throat. 

“Sure.” Her voice hit a lower register in her fear. Knitting his brows, Hammah took another sip and pulled Penny onto the dance floor. He turned her towards him, still holding one of her hands, started dancing. Penny wanted to keep from laughing when she realized Hammah had two left feet. The alcohol in her system has other ideas.

“What?” He asked, a look of amused concern on his face. 

“Have you ever danced before?” She asked, giggling at his movements. Zeena was right, he did look cuddly, like a friendly, fuzzy bear. She could feel the heat rise in her cheeks as she looked into his face.

“Not like this.” He gently pulled her closer. “Is that a problem?” Penny shook her head. She had already finished her drink and grabbed Hammah’s drink. She took another swig. This time, the alcohol didn’t melt down her throat, but slid down like a soothing balm. She felt the coolness spread through the rest of her body. The only place the coolness didn’t reach was her face, which only grew hotter as she looked at Hammah. Giving him his drink back, he finished it off. Now with both hands free, he took hers and that started dancing more vigorously. They spun and twirled each other, laughing the whole time. 

As the music changed into a slower, more melodic song, Penny and Hammah found themselves dancing a little closer. As one point, Hammah grabbed her around the waist and dipped her, spinning her back up to him. As they straightened, Penny could feel something pressing against her. It took her a moment to realize what it was. The heat in her face grew. 

A heartbeat later, that heat turned to a chill dread. If she could feel his, the way they were pressed, he would also realize something. Quickly, she wriggled from his arms. He grabbed after her arm, confused. She slipped her arm away from him and ran towards the door. Being much smaller and fueled by terror, she was able to thread her way through the crowd and exited before Hammah had taken more than two steps. 

 

Ianthe had gotten the notice of the two lightened dancers and their group. Moving to join them, Ianthe summoned a ghostly fire around her body, flicking an opaque white off her skin and clothing. Her vision was slightly blurred with the alcohol, and in the darkness of the club, she couldn’t pick out any faces. She moved up to the slenderer of the dancing mages, matching each of the dancer’s movements with her own. Some of the twining lights on the dancers arms moved and formed a second pair of arms to copy Ianthe. 

They danced for a few minutes before another figure cut in the way of the dancing mage. The new dancer was very lithe and dressed in a tight band around her chest and large, baggy pants. Her arms and middle were completely bare and the pants, Ianthe noticed, were hanging low around her hips. Her eyes roamed over the new dancer, enjoying the sight before her. Ianthe could see a smirk on the new dancer’s face. Leaning closer to find out what was causing the smirk, she saw ruddy brown hair over a light olive face with a tattoo coming up the right side of the neck and face. A familiar voice entered her consciousness.

“Do I smell alcohol on you?” The wispy voice asked innocently. Ianthe’s eyes widened and she immediately felt sober at the sight of her teacher. Back peddling, she tripped over her tail and slammed onto the ground, wings spreading on instinct. Ree loomed over her, the same smirk still on her face as she slowly paced forwards. 

Before her teacher could reach her again, Hammah ran between them, intent on Ianthe. He grabbed tow of her hands, and in a show of surprising strength, he lifted her to her feet. “Penny bolted! We need to find her!” He shouted.

That got Ianthe’s attention. “What happened?” She growled at him. 

“I don’t know!” His eyes were wide with panic and fear. “We were dancing, laughing, and she just ran out of the club!” He grabbed Ianthe’s hand and pulled her from the club. Ianthe quickly took the front position, people making way for the burning demon in their midst. The moment they burst from the club, Hammah held up Penny’s purse. “She forgot this. Hold onto it in case I lose the scent.” Without another word, he shifted into the form of a large wolf hound. Sniffing the air, he tossed his head back and forth. Finally, he found her scent and took off, making sure that Ianthe was still behind him at every turn. 

Sprinting for what felt like minutes, Hammah finally came to a stop outside of a narrow alley. They could both hear hyperventilating sobs coming from within the alley. Hammah turned back into his human form. “I’m going to stay out here.” He muttered. “I don’t know what I did, but that look she gave me. It looked as if she was scared to death.”

Ianthe didn’t reply but walked into the alley. Penny was sitting, knees to her chest and head on her knees, near the back of the alley. Her body was racked with sobs and her breath was coming in rapid, strangled gasps. Walking over, Ianthe knelt next to her friend. “Penny?” She tried to pitcher her voice gently, but the alcohol caused it to slur slightly.

Penny looked up, tears streaming down her face. “I…I…I’m soh…orry. I ruined the night.” Her sobs still wracked her body. Ianthe pulled Penny into a hug with all four arms, wrapping her wings around her friend. 

“No, you didn’t.” Ianthe muttered into her friend’s hair. “What happened? Did Hammah do anything to you?” She kept Penny pulled in close to her, gently rocking her friend back and forth. She shook her head, smearing tears and snot on Ianthe’s outfit. Penny was terrified. That much was obvious to Ianthe. She let her friend continue to cry. “You can tell me what happened.”

“You won’t think any worse of me?” She muttered.

“Not at all.” Ianthe let Penny sit back to see how serious she was. Penny hiccuped.

“I took some from his drink…and we were dancing. He pulled me close and…I felt it.” She looked petrified. Ianthe looked confused at her friend. 

“You panicked because he was aroused?” She muttered, trying with all her might to not laugh. When Penny shook her head, Ianthe’s laughter died in her throat.

“I…I thought that if I could feel his…erection…he could feel mine.” Penny buried her head back into her knees. Ianthe sat there for a few moments, her friend’s words taking time to percolate in her alcohol riddled mind. Finally, the full meaning pulled itself together in her mind.

“Come with me. We are going to talk to him.” Ianthe stood and grabbed Penny, a look of fierce determination on her face. Penny shook her head.

“Please…don’t tell him…I’m not ready. You have to keep this between us.” Ianthe’s heart ached at Penny’s desperation. She nodded. 

“I promise. But you should tell Zeena at least. She’ll be offended if you don’t. She will think you can’t trust her.” Ianthe muttered. Penny nodded. “But take your time. Now, do you trust me?”

“Yes.” Penny breathed between hiccups.

“Follow my lead.” Ianthe strode purposefully from the alleyway, Penny tucked to her side, enveloped by two arms and a wing. Hammah immediately turned to them when they came out of the alleyway. He looked worried and relieved to see Penny wasn’t injured. “Take me through the last moments that you two were dancing.” 

Hammah was taken aback for a moment, but Ianthe’s scowl and Penny’s tear streaked face convinced him to do as she said. “We were dancing. We each had some of my drink and started dancing closer. The song switched to a slower one and I dipped her. When she came up, our chests were pressed together.” He blushed slightly. “She was rubbing against…” His eyes went wide. “Was that what scared you?” He asked.

“Y…yes…” Penny said, not truly lying. 

“You have to understand.” Ianthe jumped in before anything worse could happen. “She has never been courted before in her life, and then in you come, with a lovely face, wonderful manners, and you spring that beast on her, no matter how unintentionally. She panicked and fled.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to frighten you. Can I make it up to you?” Hammah asked.

“I…I’d like that.” Penny smiled from within the wrap of wings and arms. 

“How about we study together tomorrow. This is also my fault.” Iantha offered. “I should not have brought alcohol for your first date. Nor should I have made it a place you two wouldn’t like. Would a nice study session, without any alcohol, be ok?” They both nodded. “Well, that’s set. We will see you tomorrow at noon.”

“Goodnight Hammah.” Penny gave a weak smile as Ianthe bore her away. As they passed into the main throughway of the level, they passed by the club again. Nervously, Ianthe felt her eyes drawn to the doorway. Standing there, arms crossed as she leaned against the doorway, was Ree. Picking up her pace, Ianthe fled from the club, terrified of what happened. 

They were both silent till they were back in their suite. As Ianthe locked the door, Penny asked. “Why did you do that? I thought you’d be…”

“Mad?” Ianthe asked in reply. “I’m not mad.” She smiled at Penny. “And as to why. You’re the little sister I never had. I’ve got to protect you.” She swept Penny up in her arms and squeezed hard enough to push the air from her lungs. “Now, I’m going to bed to sleep off this alcohol.” She stumbled to her doorway, imagining the wonderful comfort of her bed until it became a reality.


	7. Chapter 7

“Hammah, over here!” Penny waved her hand, her sundress blowing in the brisk morning air. Ianthe had called Hammah in the morning to tell him to meet them on the gardens at the top of the tower. Ianthe was dressed in simple pants and a tank top, her weapons next to her as she studied. She wanted to practice with them, but Penny had reminded her this study session was to be a tame one.   
Hammah smiled as he saw Penny. He was in a long robe tied with a wide sash. He had his spear in one hand and his bags over his shoulder. By the time he reached the two, Penny had her hands on her narrow hips and was admonishing her larger friend.

“I told you it was a tame study session. Why did you tell him to bring his weapon?” Her voice cracked angrily.

“I thought you might like to see him in action.” She gave Penny a lusty smile. Penny huffed and stomped her foot. 

“Well, if you don’t want to see us practice, I’d be happy to just sit and study.” Hammah said, sitting on the same bench as Penny’s books. 

“See, someone has some brains.” Penny sat down hard on her bench and pointedly placed her book in her lap. “Now, if we can start studying?” 

“You heard her.” Hammah opened one of his books and moved closer to Penny. Soon they were both bent over, reading aloud. Ianthe realized that they were in the same class. It sounded like a science class. Ianthe was currently working on a project for her Necromancy class. She was currently dealing with the dread subtopic. She started chuckling to herself. Right now, she was feeling mundane dread about going to class next week. 

A few hours passed by, and they had all moved onto a different subject. However, Ianthe couldn’t get into the new subject. “I’m sorry about last night.” Ianthe said.

“Why?” Hammah asked, looking up from the book he and Penny were reading from. 

“It was my alcohol that made us all…well…make mistakes.” Ianthe closed her book and watched as Charkassus flew between the different trees. 

“We all said yes.” Penny replied. “And you didn’t make any mistakes. I’m glad you were there.” Ianthe chuckled. She wanted to tell them about the thoughts she was having about her teacher. Her tail twitched nervously. 

“Thanks. Hey, let’s get something to eat. I’m not getting anywhere with my magic theory right now.” She was too nervous with how Ree would react on Monday to focus. 

“Sure. What do you eat?” Hammah asked Penny. 

“I’m vegetarian. But there isn’t a special style I like.” Penny said, packing up her books. “What about you?”

“Well…I’m mostly vegetarian…but when I change, I’m normally a carnivore.” He replied. 

“One request. Please don’t eat anything in front of me.” Penny replied, turning slightly green. 

“Well, I will stick with vegetables today then.” They left to find somewhere to eat. After stopping at a small stall selling fresh fruits and roasted vegetables, they went back to their seats. Hammah and Penny went back to studying and finishing their homework. Ianthe was still to distracted and picked up her swords. Moving through her basic moves, she found her fears falling away. All that existed was her body, her blades, and the area around her. 

With her lower arms, she started gathering power for the spells she had learned at home. White flames surrounded her blades as she continued to move through her practice stances. Her concentration was now completely taken up by controlling her magic and keeping from cutting herself or anyone near her. 

Ianthe only stopped when she was covered in sweat. Her breath came in ragged gasps. She felt clean and calm, her exercise clearing her head. Sheathing her blades, she smiled at her friends. “Ok, now I think I’m ready to study more.” 

The rest of the day passed easily for Ianthe. She was able to focus on her work, despite not picking up her Necromancy work again. As they left, Penny insisted that they meet up again tomorrow. While she and Hammah had finished, Ianthe still had her Necromancy project. 

“Actually, I’m visiting my family for the holiday.” Hammah said as they walked back to their rooms. “They’re in town for the holiday so we can celebrate.” 

“How about we get you some more clothing.” Ianthe suggested. “You still only have the clothes you came here with. They’re practically wearing through.” Penny looked down, wondering where it was wearing through and if she had shown anything off to Hammah. “I’m just with you. I just want to distract myself.”

The next morning, Ianthe had to drag Penny out of her room to go shopping. She was practically carrying her bridal style to the elevators. It was only when they got out of the elevator did Penny relent. They spent most of the day browsing shops, with Ianthe forcing Penny to try on clothing. At the end of the day, Penny had effectively doubled the amount of clothing she owned. 

“Now you can mix and match and not wear out any of your clothes.” Ianthe held Penny’s bags of clothing in her lower arms. 

“Do you know when Zeena gets back?” Penny asked, nibbling on a frozen lemon ice. “I want to tell her. And it’s not just because you said I should. I want to show her that I trust her, and I feel safe with you two.”

“I’m glad you feel that way.” Ianthe replied. “You’re our sister.” She took a large bite of her raspberry frozen ice. “Zeena is supposed to be back tomorrow. She’ll meet me at class.” Her crystal started chiming. “Well, speaking of that little bloodsucker.” She pulled out the crystal to see it was Zeena who was calling her. She knelt down so that Penny was in full view too. 

“Hey Zeena, how’s Uncle and Aunty?” Ianthe asked. 

“They are great. They miss you. Maybe you should come over next time.” Zeena waved to Penny. “Tell me everything that happened at the club. I want to hear everything.” 

“Actually, can you wait? We’d rather tell you in person.” Penny said, blushing. “Somewhere very private.”

“Yeah, we each have something to tell you.” Ianthe blushed as Penny gave her a sideways look. “What? I told you I made a mistake, and I want to tell both of you.”

“You teases!” Zeena screeched with frustration. “You better make this worth me fretting over what it could be.”

“When do you get back, you banshee.” Ianthe rolled her eyes.

“Actually, I am coming back tonight. We celebrated last night. Only time we can see the sky for our prayers.” Zeena showed them her packed bag. 

“That’s great! We’ll have a meal ready when you get back.” Ianthe replied. Putting the crystal away, Ianthe looked at the bags and the frozen ice. “We should probably head back. I...I want to make sure I did everything right for my Necromancy class.” Penny looked at her sideways. Ianthe wasn’t normally this hesitant about her classwork. 

A few more hours of forcing herself to work on her magic paper passed the time for Zeena to rejoin them. When their vampire friend bounded into the room, Ianthe gratefully threw her work to the side. She had finished enough to hand in. It wasn’t something she was proud of, but it was finished. Zeena quickly threw her bag into her room and flung herself on the couch. 

“What was so important that you had to have me here in person to tell?” She asked impatiently, her eyes dancing from Penny to Ianthe and back. 

Ianthe grabbed Penny’s hand. Taking a deep breath, the smaller girl replied. “When we went to the club…” She paused, trying to find the words to continue.

“I was an idiot and brought some alcohol.” Ianthe added. “We all had some. It was pretty strong.”

“Hammah and I started dancing. We got closer and closer and...I felt his dick getting hard against me.” Penny flushed. Zeena looked confused. She was about to talk when Ianthe raised one hand to stop her. “I ran out of the club, terrified. And...and it wasn’t because of his dick.” Penny fell silent, her hands in her lap.

“What was it then? What did he do to you?” Zeena’s nostrils flared, her fangs descending fully. 

“Nothing. He was wonderful. I just thought that..if I could feel him...with how cute he was and the alcohol, he might be able to feel mine as well.” She looked down at her lap, terrified of how Zeena would react. She was still worried that Ianthe would change her mind.

“Is that no like your Aunt?” Zeena asked after a few moments of silence. Ianthe nodded. Zeena turned back to Penny. Seeing the fear in her face, Zeena moved over to the couch and pulled her into another hug. “Thank you. I know this must have been torture for you, to build the courage to tell us.”

“You’re ok with this?” Penny asked. 

“The important question is are you ok with yourself.” Zeena’s voice was muffled from Penny’s hair. “We are your sisters and you’re our sister. Did you tell Hammah?”

“No...I’m waiting for the right time.” Penny replied, feeling warm in the double embrace.

“If you want us there for support, we will be.” Zeena gave her a peck on the cheek. Keeping her arms around Penny, she turned to Ianthe. “You are in big trouble. I should call your mother for that stunt with the alcohol.”

“I know.” Ianthe moped. “It was stupid. I just thought getting a little drunk at a club might be nice.”

“Was that the stupid thing you wanted to tell me?” Ianthe looked down. She could tell them about what she had done with her teacher. Instead, she nodded. There was enough happening with Penny coming out to them that she felt they should focus on helping her. “Well, I was given some sweets for you two, but I think only Penny deserves them.” She pulled out a small bag of sweets. “You are a sweet girl, so you get sweets. Ianthe is a nastly influence and does not deserve any rewards.”

The next couple of days dawned bright and clear. As they walked along to their Magic theory and practice class, Ianthe started fidgeting. She hadn’t tried to work any more on her Necromancy homework. Any time she thought about it, her dread grew. As they reached class, Ianthe looked out of the window for the flying object. It was still there, in the same place she had seen it the first day of class and every day since. There were enough odd spells and machines around that she had learned to deal with it. 

Today, however, it was a vision of dread. It looked like her fate, hanging over nothing, with only a tenuous connection to keep it afloat. “Ianthe, are you still upset that I kept the sweets from you?” Ianthe jerked back to the present. She turned and looked at Penny and Zeena, who were standing in the classroom. Ianthe was standing next to one of the windows, completely in sunlight. 

“I’m sorry. I was just...lost in thought.” Ianthe sighed, walking towards what felt like her doom. 

“Are you sure you’re ok?” Penny asked as they took their seats. “Hammah said he found you on the floor in the club when I ran out.”

“I’m fine.” Ianthe said tersely. “I’m just…on edge from my choices.”

“It’s ok. Things worked out.” Penny placed a comforting arm on a lower hand. “You don’t have to beat yourself up over this.” They turned to listen to the professor leading their current class. The hour flew by, as if something wanted Ianthe to meet her doom. When they broke off for their individual magic school lessons, Ianthe practically ran into the room. She couldn’t bear to wait any longer.

The room chilled as Ree walked in, her hood still up. Ianthe stood straighter, tail waving back and forth behind her in short, agitated, flicks. Without speaking, she held up her hand as if expecting Ianthe to put something in it. Startled, Ianthe dug into her bag and handed over the homework. She didn’t turn as Ree walked around the room, reading the homework. Her tail started moving faster and faster as she heard Ree walking up behind her. She kept staring forwards, even when Ree stopped. 

A minute passed. Then two. Then ten minutes. Ianthe was sweating and her eyes were as wide as saucers. She was too nervous to speak first. Every time she opened her mouth, her throat spasmed and prevented her from speaking.

“Why am I doing this?” Her voice wafted right behind Ianthe’s ear. Thousands of reasons ran through her mind. “You don’t have all day.”

That pushed Ianthe to finally speak. “Because I was drinking underage, gave alcohol to others who were, and my work is subpar.” The words spilled out of her quickly. “I was so terrified that I couldn’t focus on my work.”

“My, what an honest thing you’ve become.” Ree replied, her voice still wispy. “But you’re wrong. I do not care that you got your friends drunk. However, you being drunk and casting spells is a problem.” She still had not moved from behind Ianthe. “Casting while drunk is an easy way to kill and main random people. If you wish to drink, you can, but the moment the alcohol touches your lips, you cannot cast anything. Do you understand me?”

“Y…yes.” Ianthe squeaked out.

“However, I hoped you have learned something of fear and dread from this experience. Because your paper is lacking in any understanding.” She walked in front of Ianthe. “As for what happened at the club…You are still my pupil, and you will still treat me as your mentor, no matter the situation.” It wasn’t a suggestion. It was a command. 

“Yes…Professor.” Ianthe nodded. Ree’s hood came down, showing the wide smile under the ruddy hair. 

“Good. Now, if we can focus on the lesson for today?” She waved her hand to the writing on the slate at the front of the room. Still shaken, Ianthe walked forwards and started reading. “In addition to the language of the devils, you will need to learn the language of the angels. There is only so much I can teach you with only one of the two languages.”

When class was finally over, Ianthe quickly left the class, still feeling some lingering dread. Ree chuckled, causing Ianthe’s wings to flutter, aching to fly her away. Before she could get more than a few steps, Penny rocketed into her, a small bauble in her hands. 

“Look! I did it! I was able to do it!” She held the bauble up to Ianthe. It seemed to be a clear, dimly crystal inside of a skeleton of bronze. The skeleton had six legs and two grabbing claws. “Wave.” She told it. The small thing waved the two front arms. “I animated a machine!”

The last of Ianthe’s fear washed away at her friend’s accomplishment. “That’s amazing! How long does it last?”

“It will only last for an hour unless I can get something to recharge it.” Penny’s elation started to deflate. Ianthe reached forwards and a ghostly hand appeared. It touched the small construct and zapped it in the gem. It glowed brightly. Penny’s eyes went wide. “How after can you do that?” 

“All day. But what happens when the energy dies at night? I’m not staying up all night to keep it going.” Ianthe held up a claw to the little construct, which tapped the new object near it. 

“That’s ok. Once the energy dies it will be inert till I have enough energy to cast the spell again. But I can animate my machines and you can power them! This is amazing.” Penny exclaimed. 

“I hope your new-found abilities won’t draw your attention away from my classes.” Ree’s voice sounded behind Penny. 

Too happy to be frightened, Penny turned to face the specter hanging in the air before her. “Don’t worry. I’m not going to steal her away from you.” She smiled.

“Very good. I’d hate to have to steal my pupil back.” Ree drifted out of the room and down the hall. Zeena came up behind the two of them. 

“Please tell me that was not an illusion.” She mumbled morosely. “I have not been able to see through any illusions so far.” 

“No, that was my professor.” 

“Good. Can we go home and forget about class for a few moments?” Zeena slumped as she walked out, her parasol blocking the afternoon light from touching her skin. 

“You take her home.” Ianthe said, heading to the Illusion room. “I’m going to see what I can do for Zeena.” Ianthe looked around for the professor and finally stopped as she bumped into a small gnome wearing a lavishly embroidered robe. “Excuse me, are you the professor for the Illusions class?” 

“Yes. How may I help you? It’s a little too late in the class to change specialization.” He looked up at her, his expression showing her he had better places to be right now.

“I’m not looking to switch. My friend Zeena is in your class and she isn’t doing too well. Is there anything I can do to help her practice?” The gnome thought for a moment. He reached into his bag and pulled out a small wooden disk.

“This can be used twice a day. Just energize it and it will create a small illusion, about two feet square. She can use this to study.” He placed the disk in Ianthe’s hand and dismissed her. Running back to her friends, Ianthe rocketed into the elevator just as the doors were closing.

“Got something to help you.” Ianthe held out the disk. Zeena wailed out as she saw the disk, the cause of her classroom vexation following her home.


	8. Chapter 8

The winter months at school had passed much the same as the first few months. During the week, they had classes of ever-increasing difficulty. Over the weekend, they tried to make up for lost time. There were few holidays around this time of the year in the City of Mirrors, but the Sun’s Feast was the main holiday that everyone celebrated, if for different reasons. 

“Are you going home for any holiday?” Zeena asked Penny. 

“No. I’ll go home at the end of the year, but not before then.” She replied, looking up from the game they were playing.

“Will you come home with me then?” Zeena pouted. She looked at the board. “I wager another week of dishes.”

Penny looked at the pile of wagered chores already in the pot. She looked at her hand and the board. She didn’t have a great hand, but her board positioning was very good. If she folded now, she would owe a lot of extra chores. “Fine, I’ll see you two loads of laundry.”

They played for a few more minutes in silence. Zeena finally drew three cards and looked down at the board. “Are you going to spend it with Hammah?” Penny blushed heavily. “You are! Ianthe, did you hear this? Penny is abandoning me to spend the holiday with a cute boy.” Penny’s blush deepened. She was sure her face was going to catch fire. 

“You are? Have fun.” Ianthe smiled at her friend. “I’ve heard Druid celebrations can be intense.”

“Are you going to abandon me as well?” Zeena pleaded with Ianthe. 

“Yeah, my parents want me to come visit. It’s been five months.” She hugged Zeena from behind. Leaning in, she tried to peak at the vampire’s cards.

“No cheating! You are such a bad influence on our poor Penny here.” Zeena held the cards to her chest. Ianthe leaned away and walked back to the kitchen, throwing Penny a wink. Penny took her turn, moving piecing and playing cards. Zeena’s face fell as she lost. Penny pushed the pot to Zeena, a nervous grin at the large amount of chores listed. “Fine, I will enjoy my holiday without either of you. See if I come back.” She put on her best melodramatic pout.

“Well, then we’ll have to drag you back.” Ianthe called from the kitchen. “Can’t have you abandon your duties.” Zeena bristled angrily and scooped up the pile. She walked over to the board and started writing her name down on the chores she had to do. Penny walked over to Ianthe, who was rooting around the cabinets, making sure there was nothing perishable left. 

“We’re not going to make her do that all by herself, are we?” 

Looking up, Ianthe shook her head. “Nah, I was planning on pitching in. She would do the same.” 

The next day, Zeena hugged them each gloomily as they waved Ianthe off at the train station. It was the beginning of the fortnight-long winter break between sessions. Ianthe was excited to see her family again. This was the longest she could remember without seeing her family. Her mother often travelled for work, but she always had her siblings and father there. 

Hopping on the train with Charkassus, she waved back at her friends. She really wanted to be with her new friends, but she still felt obligated to spend some time with her family. The few days train ride dragged on. She alternated her time between practicing her magic and completing the paperwork she had been given to complete over the holiday. She still suspected that Professor Ree was still angry with her, as she had been piling on the work recently. None of her other teachers piled on the work with the same vigor that Ree was. 

Lillia was by herself at the train station when Ianthe got off. She ran over and smothered the smaller woman with a massive hug. “Hi Mom.” Ianthe’s voice was soft as she held her mother. 

“My little angle.” Lillia squeezed her daughter. Ianthe started laughing. It was an old joke. Her mother would call her a little angel because it had only been a short amount of time that Ianthe had been taller and despite the devilish heritage, she had always been the apple of her mother’s eye. “Tell me all about school.” 

“Well, we have a third roommate…”

Most of the vacation passed relatively quietly. At least for the daughter and niece to well known adventurers, people who were considered celebrities. Her mother was the bearer of the Emperor’s Mercy. It was part of a trinity of weapons that were wielded only by the champions of the Zhou Emperor. Unfortunately, her mother had angered the Emperor by stealing some of his private tomes, freeing a pair of slaves, and killing the Emperor’s Judgement when fleeing Ryo. So while she was still considered to be one of the Emperor’s champions, she was barred from entering his lands on pain of death. 

Her aunts were both considered famous as well, both of them having been part of the group that caused the Revival. Her mother was the most visible of the group, being a famous musician on top of everything else. Her aunts seemed more than happy to let her take the spotlight and just to spend their times in less visible pursuits. 

Ianthe could have sword her brothers were happier to see Charkassus than her. They swarmed over the small wyrm, playing and wrestling with them. Charkassus, for their part, played along and let them win, especially when Milo wrestled with them. Milo was so fragile that even a small dragon could injure him. They both wanted to know about Penny and Zeena and Hammah. She told as many stories as she could, trying to leave out any that she thought she might get in trouble from. 

“So, are you planning on sticking with Necromancy?” Norris asked one evening as they were all sitting around, watching the full moon. It was the night before Sun’s Feast. She knew that Zeena would be celebrating with her family, so she had kept from calling her friend. She would wait for early in the morning. 

“I think so.” Ianthe fiddled with her crystal. She hadn’t told them about their trip to the club nor the odd roller coaster of feelings being in Ree’s class gave her. “I actually think I might increase the amount of magical classes I’m taking.” Her parents raised their eyebrows. “I mean, I’m doing well with Necromancy, I have some give for Evocation, and I’d like to branch out a little more. They actually have magic as a minor, so, I could branch out to another school of magic and still keep up the Battle Administrator major.” She had pulled up the information on her crystal, showing her parents. 

“Ambitious.” Norris commented dryly, a small grin twinging his lips.

“Just like her mother.” Lillia smiled warmly. 

“Well, we cannot wait to see what you’ve learned by the end of the year.” Norris smiled. 

The rest of the winter break went as well as Ianthe could have hoped. With the train ride being as long as it was, she had just under a week with her family. During the whole time, she would call Hammah and Zeena in the evening so all four of them could talk. However, for the past two nights, Zeena hadn’t answered her crystal. Ianthe was nervous. While there were times she couldn’t answer her crystal, Zeena normally didn’t miss more than one time in a row. 

Maybe her crystal broke. While wealthy, crystals weren’t something that could be replaced immediately. They had to be specially grown or repaired, and Zeena would not want to get a previously owned crystal. That was the lie she told herself until she pulled into the station. That’s when she saw Penny, Hammah and Zeena waiting for her. Bounding off the train, she waved at them with her pair of empty hands. Charkassus galloped forwards, twining themselves among the group and rubbing against them like an overgrown cat. 

“Snow!” Was all Penny could talk about. “I’ve never seen snow before. Have you?” Ianthe laughed at the absurdity of the outburst.

“Yeah, I’ve been this far south before.” The group started walking back to the transit station to get to Galliford Tower. 

“She’s been this way for the past week.” Hammah said, gently squeezing Penny’s hand. They shared a bashful smile and turned away from each other. “You should have seen the snow sculptures she made. You’d’ve thought she was born in the snow.”

“Yours were better.” Penny’s voice was barely a whisper. “And you’re a good teacher.” She blushed harder and tucked her chin in. Zeena and Ianthe’s eyes widened. 

“You must tell us everything. What did you two do?” Zeena leaned in closer. “Did you two…” She winked.

“NO!” Penny squeaked in panic. “I…I mean yes I’ll be happy to tell you.” Her blush threatened to give them all sunburns. “But when we are alone.” Glancing at Hammah, Ianthe saw he was still smiling, although he was curious as to what she couldn’t tell them with him around. The rest of the trip to their room took a long time, with everyone chatting about their holiday. Hammah, now away from his roommate, explained some of the rites that Penny had witnessed. Zeena told them of the goings on in her family’s holdings. Apparently further south they were having a particularly harsh winter. She may have to go to help supervise and set up some contracts for help if it doesn’t get better. 

When the finally got to their room, Zeena turned on Penny. “Tell us, what was it you did not want Hammah to hear?”

Penny fidgeted. “Well, he already knows what it is…I just didn’t want the others around to hear.” Biting her lower lip, she lowered her voice conspiratorially. “On Sun’s Feast night, we…we slept together.” The squeal of delight Zeena gave off nearly deafened Ianthe and Charkassus. Penny had to clap her hands over her ears. “Not like that…I’m not ready for that. We…we cuddled and fell asleep.” 

Zeena’s joy, even though she had been wrong, was not diminished. “This is wonderful news. Just know, not that I do not trust you, I will have to watch Hammah every second to make sure that he treats you well.”

“He was a perfect gentleman the entire time. And it was only that one night we cuddled like that.” Penny tried to put on a brave front. 

“And I will make sure he remains so.” Zeena smiled, twirling about and walking into her room. Penny turned to Ianthe. The large demoness just shrugged. 

“I’m not going to mother hen you. I’m sure my mother would have if my father didn’t stop her.” She winked and clapped Penny on the shoulder. “Did you tell him?”

“Not yet…I’m still nervous. What if he doesn’t like…me?” Ianthe sat down beside Penny, wrapping arms around her shoulders and waist. 

“Then we’ll be here for you. I’m sorry. There isn’t much I can offer for support other than just being there.”

Penny rested her head on Ianthe’s arm. “That helps a little.” 

Classes started up again as normal. Hammah found himself being dragged to their rooms more and more often to study. While Zeena worked to get them to finally hook up, Ianthe did all she could to reign her friend in. Near the beginning of spring, Zeena sighed as they were about to leave their magic classes for the day.

“What’s wrong?” Penny asked, carefully cradling her current project. 

“The sun, it has returned.” Zeena moaned. During most of the winter, the sun set early enough that they would leave in the dark. Now, the sun was still over the horizon, sending light deep into the main class. “I will have to hide myself again.” She fidgeted with the hem of her skirt. It only reached her knees, showing off the porcelain skin of her legs. 

“Would you like me to carry you?” Ianthe flexed her arms, showing off the muscles her weapons class had helped her form. 

“I think I might just swoon and you’ll have to.” She playfully put the back of her hand to her forehead, eyes fluttering. Laughing, Ianthe walked over and scooped her small friend up. “Ah! Hold up the bottom of my dress, you heathen!” She squealed. Rolling her eyes, Ianthe tucked her lower arms up, keeping Zeena from mooning everyone who looked. Wrapping her wings around the vampire, she walked from the classroom, Penny by her side. 

Something caused Ianthe to stop. The flying object she had seen outside of class all year was gone. It had always been there, no matter what the weather was. She would see it there, rain, sleet, snow, and wind. But now, in the picturesque sunset, it was gone.

“Ianthe, I know you tease me, but this is torture.” Zeena shivered against her friend’s chest, fear in every word. 

“Sorry, something caught my eye…” Ianthe started to turn when the sun dimmed around them. Turning, she saw Ree racing towards them, her cloak billowing with power. Then everything stopped in an all-encompassing moment of sensory overload. Everything went white and there was a faint ringing in her ears. There was a tremendous force that rocked the ground. It picked Ianthe up and shook her like a rag doll, slamming off masonry and glass. 

Moments later, though an eternity to Ianthe’s reckoning, her eyes readjusted from the nova bright blast to the dimness of a sun setting. The quiet rush of air filtered in as the cacophonous roar of the explosion died away. She realized she was tumbling in the air. All around her, the world tumbled. Her wings snapped open by instinct. Feeling the heavy drag of stopping her weight and the speed she was falling, Ianthe pulled into a dive, not wanting to sprain, or even break, a wing joint. 

That was when she realized she had no one in her arms. Looking around, there was falling masonry, flaming clothes, and bodies. There were only two that Ianthe could spare a thought for. Coming around for another pass, she saw Penny’s green dress flapping in the wind. Aiming towards her, Ianthe clamped on with all four hands as she dove to match velocities. Slowly, she pulled out of the dive. Looking up, they had already fallen a kilometer and there was still half a kilometer to go. Pulling up, she felt the heavy strain on her wing joints. 

“Hold onto me!” She screamed into the wiping wind. She used her lower pair of arms to wrap Penny’s arms around her. They then pulled off one of Penny’s hair ribbons on used it to tie their belts together. Switching sets of hands, Ianthe squeezed Penny to her with her lower arms while the upper ones were free to grab for Zeena when she found her. 

As she looked up, she spotted a ball of falling darkness. Based on where Ree had been, and her knowing Zeena’s severe reaction to the sun, Ianthe made the choice to fly towards the falling sphere. Her ears were filled with screaming wind, but she could feel the groaning of her wing joints. A small part of her mind was realizing she wouldn’t be able to catch all three of them. 

Her grip faltered for a moment as they thought entered her mind. She would have to sacrifice one of them in order to prevent them all from dying. Based on the rate they were falling she would have to make a guess at whom to grab. Her heart started hammering louder, her hands clamming with sweat. With a shudder, she continued to fly, knowing she had to try. 

A second explosion of starlight answered her question for her. The ball of darkness dissipated, and Ianthe could see the two falling figured. Both were clearly unconscious, their forms tumbling limply. As she sped closer, Ianthe burst into tears as Zeena started to burn, the last rays of sunlight burning her vampiric flesh. 

A fog of black smoke rose around them. For a moment, it turned into a large, demonic form. It grabbed both of the falling figures. “Let them go!” Ianthe raged. Gathering her power in her upper claws, Ianthe recalled how Charkassus created their bolts of lightning. Fueling her anger into the energy, she let out a quick incantation. Thrusting her arms forwards, a long bolt of lightning arced from her hands. It slammed against the fiend’s back. It turned, saw her, and laughed. 

“Well, you’ll do.” The fiend’s voice rumbled the air and the sound nauseated her. It hovered in the air, making sure to keep Zeena in the darkness it created. 

“I said let them go!” Ianthe pulled out her pistol and fired off a pair of radiant shots. The fiend growled in anger. 

“Do not tempt me to disobey my orders, punk.” It growled at her. “I have a message for you. Tell this whelp’s parents that their daughter will lead them to a brighter dawn.”

“What do you mean?” Ianthe asked, arcing her flight to stay a safe distance from the fiend. 

“Come Northeast and find out. Find my master in the wastes.” It chuckled. “If you kill my master and free me, I’ll consider not killing you and your friends as making us even.” With a final laugh, the fiend disappeared. Ianthe’s heart felt like a leaden weight, pulling her down to the ground. 

“Ianthe, the roof!’ Penny’s shout came at the last moment. Pulling her wings in, Ianthe curled up and hit the roof of the buildings, rolling with the impact. Thrusting a leg out, she felt her skin scrape and her joints and bones groan with pain at the sudden stop. The coppery tang of blood filled the air as the two of them lay there. “Ianthe?” Penny muttered. 

Ianthe squeezed the smaller woman with all of her hands, burying her face into Penny’s shoulder. Her body started shaking as sobs were pulled from her body, each one accompanied by streams of tears. “I lost them…” She muttered into her friend’s shoulder.

“Ianthe…they were taken. You didn’t lose them.” She hugged her friend back. “Besides, you heard what that thing said. It told us where to find them. We can call for help.” Ianthe shook her head. 

“No, I’m not calling for help.” Tears streaked her rage filled eyes. “I’m going after them.” Ianthe started to stand. Penny was pulled up along with her by the strap holding them together.

“Apparently, I’m coming with you.” Penny said. “Not that I’d want to stay behind. Zeena’s my friend too. I’m not going to abandon her.”

“No offense, but…” Ianthe started, but Penny cut her off.

“You are not leaving me behind. You already roped me into an adventure. I’m going to call that in now. If I can’t go to save my friend, why would I be able to go help anyone I don’t know? And I’m not a child. I can help.” Ianthe sulked at the rebuke, feeling her anger ebb away at Penny’s logic. She hated when people were rational when she wanted to be irrational. 

“Fine, but I’m calling uncle Al. We’re going to need some help.” Ianthe pulled out her crystal as she looked up at the rest of the falling debris as it crashed into the ground and some of the buildings below. Whoever these people were, they didn’t care for causing collateral damage. 

“Uncle Al.” Ianthe’s voice was cracking, tears still streaming down her face. “We need you here now. Not Mom, not Dad, not Aunt or Aunty, but you.”

“What’s wrong?” Her Uncle’s nasally voice came through the crystal.

“A fiend just stole Zeena and my professor. We’re going to the Wastes to save them.” Despite having no skin on his skull, the two women could see a wicked smile spread on his visage, fangs glinting in a smile that promised pain.


	9. Chapter 9

“Where are you headed Al?” Lillia looked up from the table where she had been writing her next song. 

“Going to visit Ianthe.” He replied. She knew he was a horrible liar, and so did he, so he tried to keep as close to the truth as he could. “She wants my help with something. Probably has to do with her Necromancy class.” He gave the shoulderless equivalent of a shrug. 

“You’ll let us know if she’s in trouble or needs help, right?” Lillia asked, clearly worried. 

“Of course I will.” He flew out the door quickly. When he rounded the corner, he called out, “Dokami, you can come out.” A large, cylindrical creature emerged from the ground. Four arms and four legs each appeared radially from its barrel-like body. On the top of the cylinder, there was a large mouth surrounded by four radial eyes. It looked at Al and shuffled along with him. “We’re headed to Crossroads. Are you ready for another long trip?” The large earth spirit gurgled happily. Heading to the train station, Al paid for their passage, removing the coin from the magical bag he hid in his head.   
Al made sure to keep the door to their carriage locked the entire time. He didn’t want people to keep staring or getting terrified by seeing an earth spirit and a Mimir floating about, at least while they were in a place they couldn’t get away. 

 

“Penny, are you sure you want to come? Missing this many days of class will probably lose you your scholarship. Are you ok with that?” Ianthe asked from the other side of Penny’s door. There was no answer. A minute later, Penny came out. She was wearing her sturdiest dress, with her tool belt already strapped on. 

“I know. It hurts to betray my parent’s trust by throwing this away, but I am not going to let Zeena go.” She put her bag on and walked to the door. As she opened it, she dodged backwards as a hand nearly rapped her on the head. “Right on time.”

Hammah blinked, confused. “Where are you going?” He asked, noticing they both had large bags with them. 

“Whoever attacked us stole Zeena. Ianthe and I are getting her back. I want you to come with us.” Hammah blanched. He had never seen her so driven and forceful. “Are you going to bail on me?”  
“N…No. Is it just the three of us going? Do we even know where we are going?” He asked, sweat forming on his brows. 

“No, my uncle is coming. He has a lot of experience with this type of thing. So, are you going to get your equipment or are we leaving without you?” Ianthe and Penny walked out of their suite and locked the door. 

“Just give me a few minutes…this way.” Hammah moved in a haze. He had heard of the attack and tried to check on Penny, but she had been ignoring him for the past few hours. Now, out of the blue, she called on him. He wanted to be there for her, but he wasn’t sure if he was ready for this. As he started packing, he looked at the items around his room. Was he really just going to abandon his training to go with them? 

He still hadn’t answered the question as to why he was going when they got to the train station. “Three tickets and a pet to Crossroads.” Ianthe put down the coins as she paid for the tickets. The ride to Crossroads was quiet, everyone still in an internal, contemplative struggle. 

“I’m sorry.” Penny said as Crossroads came into view. 

“For?” Ianthe asked. 

“No, I mean to Hammah.” Penny turned to their companion. “I shouldn’t have forced you to come with us. You have no stake in this.” She hung her head, not wanting everyone to see the shame she felt.   
Hammah, startled from his thoughts, shook his head. “It’s ok. If I cannot rise to the challenge now, when will I?” 

“But this isn’t your fight.” Penny countered.

“No, but it’s yours.” He blushed a little. “And I want to help you.” There was a silence between the two that grew longer and longer, no one thinking of a way to break it. As the minutes passed, the silence became deafening. Eventually, Charkassus let out a trill and laid their head across Hammah’s lap. 

When they got off, Hammah grabbed Penny’s hand. He gave it a slight squeeze as they walked off. Ianthe smiled as Penny stood a little taller. She didn’t want them to be plagued by doubt or harbor resentment between each other. This wasn’t the time for it. 

“We need to wait a day for Al to get here.” Ianthe told the two. “Let’s find somewhere to spend the night.” They wandered around for a little while before they found themselves near the outskirts of town. The buildings here still showed scars from the Cataclysm nearly two hundred years ago. They found a small inn, rather shabby and run down. Looking at their combined purses, they realized they had very little coin left on hand. 

Walking in, they saw there was a bald half-orc man sitting behind a metal barred desk. “How much for a room for the night?” Ianthe asked, looking around the dingy entryway. There were three couches, all of which looked like they hadn’t been washed and were covered in decades of grime. The walls, once white, had passed yellow and had browned.

“Five copper an hour.” The half-orc grunted. Hammah coughed, getting their attention. 

“This is a place used normally by people who are…spending time with a professional.” He emphasized the final word. Ianthe and Penny crinkled their eyebrows in confusion.

“He means prostitutes.” The half-orc said crossly. “No loitering. Take a room or find another place.”

“How long till Al get’s here?” Penny asked.

“It’ll take another twelve hours.” Ianthe shuffled her feet. “We have enough.” They all looked at each other. 

“Do we really need it?” Hammah asked. 

“If we are staying overnight, yes.” Ianthe replied. “This is not a city you want to spend too much time in outside at night.” She turned to the half-orc. “We’ll take a room, through till six in the morning.” The half-orc raised an eyebrow but handed over the key after taking the six silver coins. 

“Well, if you are looking for something to do, the Kreptic across the street is a place to waste time.” The half orc said, going back to the magazine he was reading. The group exchanged glances. None of them wanted to wait in this place any longer than they needed to, but they also were wary of venturing in this area of the city. 

“Come on, we might as well get some information.” Hammah finally said. “Many of these people may know about the Wasteland. It’s barely a day away.”

“Ok, that’s a good point. My aunt never told me too much about the Wasteland.” Ianthe walked through the doors, Hammah and Penny behind her. They walked across the crumbling cement street to the basement tavern known as Kreptic. The place had a large sign of esoteric symbols filling a tankard hanging over the stairwell that lead down to the main room. The windows were filled with smoke. 

When they entered the room, they first noticed the large billow of scented smoke hanging around the ceiling. Most of the people in the room were drinking or smoking. It was a rather dingy bar, with only one dim crystal glowing over the register. Most of the lights were oil lanterns. The people drinking around them were mostly those getting drunk not to have fun, but to forget the day. In one corner was a group of people who were getting drunk for the fun of it. They were rowdy, drawing the ire of the other patrons. 

Ianthe skirted them, leading her friends to a small group of weathered humans and elves sitting at one of the side tables. Ianthe noticed they were wearing clothing with the Gellan merchant crest. “Excuse me, can we sit here?” There were three elves and two humans. They all turned to look at the small group. 

“The fuck are a bunch of kids doing here?” One of the elves asked. He had a weatherworn face, skin tanned from years crossing the Wasteland. 

“Looking for information on the Wasteland.” Ianthe said, taking a seat. Penny and Hammah followed suite, feeling nervous about sitting with these hardened travelers. 

“Why bother us?” Another asked. “Rich girl like you should be at the library or staying home.” Ianthe’s tail whipped back and forth. Penny put a hand on Ianthe’s arm, trying to keep her back.

“Because, we don’t have time and we are going into the Wasteland tomorrow.” Hammah answered. “We need any information you can give us about it.”

“Wait,” The leader of the group held up his hand. “You mean crossing the Wasteland, don’t you?” Ianthe shook her head.

“We are going into the Wasteland. A…a friend got kidnapped and was taken northwards.” Ianthe tapped the table. “All we know was that we were told to go north.” The caravanners all looked around at each other. Finally, the leader started talking.

“Look, all we really know is the lands right around Route Sixty-Six. We’ve heard tales from some of the traders in La-Hazar. Even after the Revival, the Wasteland is still a scar on this plane. Almost nothing grows there. There are rumors of a large city, left to ruin in the north. There are said to be caverns under the city. If you are looking for someone, that would be where they are. From what we have been told, the city is a few days north of Route Sixty-Six.”

“Do you know how to get there?” Ianthe asked, leaned forwards on her seat.

“No. maybe you can follow some of those raiders back to their lairs.” Another offered. “There are enough that they must be holing up somewhere with food and water.”

“Speaking of water, bring plenty of it…” They spent the next hour telling the three what to bring with them to survive the Wasteland. Penny pulled out some paper and furiously started writing, trying to take detailed notes. When they were done, the caravanners were looking happier than they had when the group entered. 

As they stood to leave, a loud crash caused them to turn around. At the front door, there were five people, all with weapons in hand. They were all draped in shapeless dark cloaks that concealed their features. In one hand, they were all holding shinning weapons, alchemical silver wavering in the light. In their other hands, they were all holding glowing symbols.

Everyone stayed where they were sitting. A palpable dread filled the room. Ianthe leaned over to the caravanners. “Who are they?” She whispered. 

“The Closed Mouth.” The man murmured. “Fucking cultists. No one really knows what they want but getting in their way is an easy way to find yourself in a heap in the gutter.” The cultists started moving around, going up to each person with their glowing symbols. The colors shifted, showing yellows, browns, and blacks as they passed the light over each person. When they pulled away, the light went back to white. 

Ianthe found it odd that no one moved. There were only five of these cultists, and they were only armed with long knives. There were people in here with swords and axes, people who looked like they could kill the cultists in moments. She waited till they got to the boisterous bunch. They didn’t seem to have the same level of dread. 

“Who in the Hells do you think you are? Do you know who I am?” The large human batted the cultist’s glowing icon away. “Get that filth away from us.”

The cultists, unperturbed, held the icon up again to the group. This time, it flashed blue and let out a soft chirp. The other cultists, hearing the chirp, turned to converge on their lone companion. The small cultist strode forwards, pointing to one of the humans sitting there. 

“H…hey, what are you doing?” The well-dressed young man asked, being dragged from his seat. The small cultists had grabbed him and was dragging him towards the door. 

“Yo, didn’t you hear? Leave him alone.” The first guy drew his thin, long blade and thrust at the small cultist. Without a hint of surprise, the cultist twirled, long knife pushing the man’s thrust to the side. Reversing their momentum, the cultist flicked the knife over the man’s throat, spraying blood across the bar. The man fell back, his lifeblood draining from his body. 

The cultist wiped the blade on their captive’s clothing and walked away. The captive man was now crying, blubbering as no one else would stand to defend him. Ianthe felt her anger rise. She couldn’t just let him get taken. Biting her lower lip, she forced herself to stand. Thrusting out her lower hand, a spectral hand flew forwards and grabbed the cultist. A large jolt of electricity caused them to whirl around. 

“What are you doing?” The head caravanner asked, backing away. He looked at the cultists, “We’re not with them.” He and his group backed off. One of the cultists approached them.

“You can’t just steal someone. What are you going to do to him? Why are you taking him?” Ianthe’s voice quivered. The cultists didn’t answer. As the cultist got to them and raised the light to Ianthe, it flashed a deep purple. The cultist then held the light to Hammah and Penny. It flashed a deep purple for each of them as well. By this time, the other three cultists had gathered in a crescent around them.  
Ianthe pulled both of her scimitars. Her lower hands thrust out forwards, twisting in a complex motion, causing thunderous energy to encase her blades. “Leave him alone and back off.” Ianthe growled. Her growl was echoed by a loud roar from behind her. Leaping onto the table, Hammah turned into a large hunting cat, sharp teeth and fangs barred. 

Penny watched both of them, eyes wide with fear. Hand shaking, she reached into her bag and pulled out a metallic ball the size of a skull. “Amber, attack” The ball sprouted eight spider-like legs. At the apex of the ball, a small crystal raised itself from the shell, energy pulsing within. 

The small robot sent out a small zap of electricity to one of the cultists as Ianthe sprang forwards, her blades flicking forwards. Two of the cultists tumbled backwards, dodging away from her blades. Hammah landed on the last cultist, his fangs sinking deep into the man’s neck. Hammah bore the man to the ground, no noise leaving his throat. 

The two cultists, having regained their feet, came at Ianthe from both sides. Twisting away from one, she attempted to parry the incoming knife. The blade rang against hers and slid down to her hand. The silvered blade touched her knuckle and fire roared through her hand. She dropped the blade in that hand, her lower hand reaching up to cradle it. Lashing out, she brought her blade across her opponent’s chest, opening a long gash. Pumping her wings, she knocked the cultist back, a thunderous eruption encasing the cultist. The concussive force of the magic scrambled his brain, dropping him to the ground. 

The first cultist turned to look at the small mechanical object that was zapping him. He then looked up at the small woman controlling the robot. Taking a running lead, he cleared the small robot and brought his blade down at Penny. It jarred off the metal pipe she was holding. Flailing nervously, Penny pushed the cultist backwards, knocking him over a stool. Amber continued to pump electricity into the prone cultist, frying him.

Hammah looked up from the enemy he had bit. Something was odd about the person he just killed. Looking down, he noticed the problem was with the person’s mouth. Hearing Ianthe’s scream of pain and Penny’s cry of surprise, he decided to leave the question for later. Spinning, he saw there was one cultist still engaged with Ianthe, and the one still trying to take her captive outside. Bounding forwards, he barreled into the back of the woman leaving the tavern, feet crushing her to the ground. 

Charkassus’s head, unseen from under the table, flashed out, grabbing onto the remaining cultist’s leg. The cultist didn’t scream out, silent despite having something as powerful as Charkassus crush her ankle. Bringing her blade back around, Ianthe slashed across her final opponent, the blade creating a booming impact from her magic. Ianthe immediately dropped her remaining blade, her vision starting to blur. She could feel the pain in her hand spreading throughout her body. 

Before she fell unconscious, a cool energy touched her cut, drawing the poison from her body. As her vision cleared, she saw Hammah sitting in front of her, a small pool of vile black liquid floating just off her hand, getting larger by the moment. Finally, he dropped the ball of poison to the side. “Feeling better?” Ianthe nodded. 

“That…that was terrifying.” Penny was leaning against the wall. By this time, most of the patrons had fled, terrified that more cultists would come down or that the dragon that had somehow gone unnoticed would burn the place down. ‘Why do people do this?” She squeaked. 

“We’re ok, and that’s what matters.” Ianthe looked over the dead cultists. “What’s their deal? Charkassus bit one, but they didn’t even make a sound.”

“I…I think this is what’s going on.” Penny muttered. She picked up Amber and placed it back in her bag. “They don’t have mouths.” Hammah and Ianthe looked at her for a moment before scrambling over. They recoiled when they saw that Penny was right. It wasn’t that their mouths were sealed, it was that they seemed to have disappeared, as if they never existed. 

“What in all the Hells?” Ianthe muttered. She picked up one of amulets. It showed a skull with hands over its mouth. Their attention was taken by a shuffling in front of them. The proprietor stood there, wiping his hands on the apron he wore. 

“I’m going to have to ask you to leave.” He said, wringing his apron. “I can’t have you messing up my bar.” 

Hammah placed a hand on Ianthe’s arm a moment after Penny did. Ianthe looked at both of them and bit back the retort she was about to give. Instead, she looked through the pockets of the cultist’s robes. “We’re leaving, don’t worry. Grab their weapons.” She pointed to the others. Gathering up the equipment, the group left the tavern and crossed back to their rooms. 

“What was that about?” Hammah asked. “Why were they so…willing to let those cultists take that man?”

“I don’t know. We need to ask my Uncle when he gets here. He knows about all of this kind of stuff.” Ianthe looked at the blades. “Don’t let them cut you. That must be some bad poison.”

“I’ll clean them off.” Penny got a large bowl and filled it with water. Dropping in some oil, she dipped all the blades in and washed the poison from them. As she finished, Ianthe looked each one over. They were well-made daggers. At first, they looked like they were silver plated. But as Ianthe examined them closer, they were made of alchemical silver mixed with a small amount of steel. 

“I don’t think this should worry us. At least not for now.” Hammah said. Ianthe and Penny glanced up, curious as to why he would say that. “Our goal is out in the desert, and we have a time limit. We need to save Zeena. Based on what they were saying, this cult has been around for a while, and might be larger than what we can handle.”

Ianthe leaned back, sighing. “Maybe. Let’s wait and ask Al when he gets here. I know we should go after Zeena first, but I feel bad with this cult around.” The others nodded. None of them spoke, but Hammah and Ianthe moved one of the beds in front of the door. Hammah set up his bed on the floor on the opposite side of the room as Penny and Ianthe. Climbing into the bed with Penny, Ianthe laid her head down, wondering what her uncle would make of this.


	10. Chapter 10

Ianthe woke as the something scrabbled at the door. Looking around, she noticed that Hammah was also waking at the sound. Penny was still asleep, cuddled against her chest. Slowly, as to not wake Penny, she extracted herself from the bed. Hammah started as he heard movement in the room. Cursing silently, Ianthe remembered that Hammah was only human; he wasn’t able to see in the dark like she could. 

“You hear that too, right Hammah?” Ianthe whispered. He jumped again, though not as much as the first time. 

“Yeah…it’s been out there for the past ten minutes. Windows too.” Hammah’s voice was tinged with fear. Ianthe checked her crystal. It was still two hours before dawn. 

“More cultists?” She asked. Hammah nodded and grabbed his spear. She could see his coppery magic forming near the tip of his spear. Ianthe shook Penny gently. “Penny, stay quiet.” She whispered as she covered the girl’s mouth. “Someone’s outside of the door. Grab Amber.” Ianthe slid forwards, pulling one of her blades and the pistol from her belt before getting to the door. She lifted one end of the bed they placed in front of the door and moved it enough to open the door. 

A loud crash came from the outer hall, causing Ianthe to freeze for a moment. There were sounds of running boots and falling bodies, metal blades clanging off bone and stone. Finally, the hall grew quiet. Ianthe realized her hands were shaking. Taking a deep breath, and sparing one last look at her friends, she ripped the door open and raised her pistol. 

“Yeah, that’s not going to do much.” Al’s nasally voice replied from the other end of the pistol muzzle. Ianthe nearly dropped the pistol as she saw her Uncle floating in front of her. Behind him, nearly taking up the entire hallway, was Dokami, an earth spirit that followed her uncle around. Laying on the floor were the bodies of three cultists. They were dressed in the same robes and vanished mouths as the ones from earlier in the night. “Were you expecting company?”

“No. At least, not from anyone but you.” Ianthe grabbed the floating skull and hugged it close. “Thank you.”

“No problem. It looks like you’ve taken your first steps on the Road.” He looked at the bodies. As Ianthe led Al into the room, Penny and Hammah gave cries of alarm and attacked Al. A small gout of ice erupted from Hammah’s spear just as an arc of lightning snapped from the top of Amber. The combined energy slammed into Al, who seemed completely unaffected by it. Turning to the pair, he chuckled. “I take it these are your friends? Are you going to introduce me or are they going to continue to fight me?”

Ianthe blushed, fiddling with the end of her mohawk braid. “Penny, Hammah, this is my uncle, Al, and his…pet.” She gave him a questioning look. His one spectral hand made a wavering motion of uncertainty. “The earth spirit that follows him. Dokami.”

“Hey, good to meet ya.” Al said, floating in and reaching his single spectral hand out to them. Penny was the first to recover and reached out, shaking the hand. It was surprisingly solid and strong.   
“Is this where you learned to make your hand?” Penny asked, her voice cracking and quavering. 

“Yeah, if only to annoy him as much as he annoys me.” Ianthe grabbed the blades on the bodies and checked their pockets for any information or coin. Like the others, their pockets were also empty. Looking around, she also noticed none of them had the covered mouth symbols like the others. When Ianthe brought this up, Al’s fleshless face looked pensive.

“If they are after you now, we should get going as soon as possible.” He looked around as they slowly got ready. “I probably should have warned you. The Church of Mercy has been hearing reports about the cult of the Closed Mouth. Most of them have been farther north. I didn’t think we would run into any down here.”

“Well, hopefully we won’t run into any in the Wasteland.” Penny said. There was a long silence.

“Great, they are coming from the Wasteland, aren’t they?” Ianthe asked her silent uncle. 

“Yeah…that’s where we think they’re coming from.” Al chuckled. “But honestly, there are so few cells that we have found that it is only rumors. We know nothing about them. They don’t speak or even write anything down.”

“Well, the faster we’re gone, the better.” Hammah replied. “Do you think we can sell off the weapons for anything?” Al examined them then shrugged. 

“Worth a shot.” He hazarded. They quickly left the room and made their way to the end of the night market. Finding a smith, they were able to sell the small blades for what they felt was a pittance of what the weapons were worth. However, it was enough to get them some supplies for desert travelling. They loaded up mostly with water bottles and sunscreen, and a small tent Al had them get. 

When they were done with shopping, they had almost the same amount as they had before selling the blades. They were trying to put the water on Charkassus and in their packs when Al gave a cough.  
“Al, why do you do that? You can’t even cough!” Ianthe thrust out her jaw petulantly. 

“I know, that’s why I do it.” Al poked her with his spectral hand. It then disappeared inside of his head. Pulling it out, a small bag came with it. “Remember, I have this.” Iathne palmed her forehead with three hands. 

“Guys, his bag can hold all of our gear. I say we put the water in there.” Ianthe’s voice was muffled as she spoke into her palm. Penny chuckled as she and Hammah placed their waterskins into the small bag. The larger containers entered into the opening and disappeared. The bag did not seem to change size or weight. 

Not waiting for the sun to rise, the group started walking out of the city and towards the Wasteland. As they got to the start of the Wasteland, the nominal end of the town, there was a large checkpoint. This was mainly to collect tolls from caravans travelling along the road. As the party walked passed the checkpoint, a soldier stepped out and looked them over. Seeing the party clearly as he brought the torch he carried closer, the man blanched and waved them along. 

They travelled for a few hours till they came to the first exit ramp. Looking down, they saw that it was a tumble of concrete leading from the road into the desert. “These are around every few miles. The first few actually have people living near them. Friendly enough for Wastelanders. Maybe we should start there.” Al told them as they looked down the exit ramp.

“Might as well.” Hammah added, looking at Ianthe. Ianthe looked around at each of them. Al five of her companions were watching, as if waiting for her to give the order.

“When did I become the leader?” She asked, starting off down the ramp. The others followed, slowly making their way down the tumbled concrete. When they reached the bottom, the sun was getting close to its zenith. 

“It’s pretty warm here.” Hammah commented, wiping his brow under his hat. 

“It gets worse in the Wasteland proper.” Penny told him. “It gets worse the farther into a desert you go, and the evenings are freezing.” 

“Well, I look forwards to seeing what wonders this land has to present me with.” Hammah smiled at Penny. “Would you care to by my guide?”

Penny blushed. “I’m no expert of the plants and animals around here, but I’ll do what I can.” 

Al and Ianthe looked at each other side long. Al put his finger in his mouth, miming a vomit. “Hush, they’re cute.” Ianthe hissed at him. 

“You bios are so gross.” He stuck his fingers out from between his teeth like a tongue and floated on ahead. Charkassus and Dokami loped along besides the group, happy to be able to run and frolic. They walked another few hours under the hot sun before they saw the small glitter of lights in the distance.

Half an hour later, they found themselves standing outside of a small village surrounding an oasis. A few people came up to stop them. They were wearing ragged leathers and cloth, straps and metal haphazardly covering their bodies. Two of them were holding archaic looking rifles, while the other three had crossbows. 

Al floated forwards. “Who runs this town?” He asked.

“The Ragged Man.” They all replied. They lowered their weapons, turning back Al turned back to the party.

“And what a glory is he!” Al replied. “This is one of our scrounger outposts. It was an abandoned village a few years ago, but we took it over. There is a lot of stuff in the Wastes people haven’t been able to get to, and we’ve been putting it to good use.” 

“Good to see you again, Al.” One of the rifle armed figures stepped forwards. “What brings you here with this menagerie?” Ianthe couldn’t tell anything about this person other than their dark skin, as their face and body were buried under layers of cloth, leather, and metal. 

“Not sure. Ask her.” Al pointed to Ianthe.

“Our friend was taken by a fiend in the City of Mirrors. We were told that she could be found by going north to the Wasteland.” She held out one of the symbols. “We were then attacked by cultists with this symbol and no mouths in Crossroads.”

The scrounger took the symbol, checking it over. “I don’t think we’ve ever gotten one of these before. Do you mind if we keep it?” Ianthe showed them the other symbols. The scroungers laughed and motioned for the party to follow them. Going back to the small village, Ianthe realized it wasn’t a village but a large workshop. There were piles of scrap everywhere, service benches and tool sheds. There were people cataloguing and sorting all of the junk while others took it apart to see how it worked. The scrounger went over to one of the technomancers examining a large bundle of wires. 

The technomancer, a large man with a bushy beard and bulging gut, looked up after a few moments. His eyes widened as he saw the symbol and quickly made space to examine it. “that will hold his attention for some time.” The scrounger told them. “For now, rest. We do not have any excursions happening right now, and we can wait till that is finished. Tell me, do you know where you are headed?” The scrounger took off their helmet, showing a male human’s face. He looked to be in his late thirties, with short hair and a clean-shaven face. He took a seat near some shade and motioned for them to take chairs as well. 

They all sat, looking to Ianthe. She shook her head. “No. All I know is that we were told to go North.” The scrounger sat, hands linked under his chin. He thought for a little while before leaning back.  
“The only place to go is the ruined city of Menpas. All of the other towns are too small to hold enough arcane and technological significance. Plus, if they are calling fiends, there is another reason to go to Menpas.” He drawled, his voice thick. 

“You’re not saying there’s another gate there?” Al spun, alarmed. 

“Not that we know of, but it seems to be a place close enough to the Comet’s crater to have once housed a more powerful portal.” The man added.

“That far North? Really? Well, if that’s true, it makes sense. Even without the portal, summoning a fiend would be easier there. Have any supplies we can barter for?” Al looked pensively at the sky.   
“Of course, every town of ours is a barter town.” The scrounger stood and lead them over to a woman who was currently working on turning a flat piece of metal, shaping it to the contours of a chariot nearby. “We have some traders here.”

The woman looked up. “Well, if you’ve any clink or shine, that’s fine. I’ll also take moveable goods.” She pointed over to a covered area, with three walls open to the elements. “I’ve got supplies, food, and random odds and ends.”

“We need food. Probably a lot of it for them.” Al pointed to his living companions. “You have a map to Menpas?”

“Food we got some of. Map, got this.” She pulled out a very barebones map. “That’s about it.” She put it down with the food chits Al had already placed down. Ianthe and Hammah stayed with Al, trying to negotiate how much food they needed. Hammah pointed out he could summon fruit for them to eat that would take care of their needs. Al pointed out the fact that if they needed his energy for something else, he wouldn’t be able to summon the food. 

“What’cha got there?” the scrounger asked Penny. 

“This looks to be the arms of an old machine of some sort.” Penny held up a pair of arms. They looked like the claws of a crustacean, heavy and blunt for grabbing. She looked at the connectors. Putting the arms down, she pulled out Amber and activated it. Prying off two of the front panels, she examined the connections with the old arms. “I think I can use these.” Turning to the rest of her group, she called out. “I found something. Mind if I look around more?” Without waiting, Penny continued looking through the junk piles. 

Eventually, she had a small pile of parts. Diving into her bag, she pulled out a few of her smaller creations, popping out the power crystals from them. She looked up as she was about to start making a new creation. “How much for these parts?” 

“Let’s see what you make from it first.” The woman chuckled. “But I’ll call it an even five royals for saving me the work of having to deal with them.”

Penny sighed as she looked through her purse. She didn’t have that much money. Her hand clenched around a small felt pouch. “I can’t use her money…” Penny pulled out the pouch Zeena had given her for the night at the club. It still held more than enough for what the woman was asking for. 

“Go on. She gave that money to you.” Ianthe crossed her lower set of arms. She gesticulated with her upper ones. “Besides, won’t this come in handy when we try to recue her?” Penny nodded. “Then in her mind, it will be money well spent.” A fanged grin spread on her face. 

“Ok!” Penny placed the five golden coins on the counter and started working, putting parts together and prying off unneeded parts. They all watched with fascination as Penny worked. “Ianthe, can you help me? I don’t have my full set of tools, so I need you to create some fire and lightning.” Rolling her eyes, Ianthe walked over, generating the energy she needed either to weld, cut, or power her new creation. 

When Penny finished, she stepped back. Amber had grown in size. No longer was it a single ball with four legs, but Penny had added an oval-like abdomen to the ball. She had moved one set of legs back and added a third pair of legs. Where the first set of legs had been, she attached the two long grabbing claws. She had installed power crystals in each of the new arms and one in the abdomen, giving the unit multiple power sources. She had kept one of the smaller power crystals for her small flying thropter. 

“What do you think?” She asked. Amber walked forwards, picking items up with its claws, using its shocker being used as an eye. 

“Can you still carry it? How long will the charge last?” Ianthe asked. She didn’t want to have to carry it.

“Well, the charge only lasts for about two hours…and no, I don’t think I can carry it.” Penny muttered. She looked imploringly at Ianthe.

“If you want, I can give you something, as long as you promise to pay me back.” The merchant said. She pulled out a long black mat that had wires pinned through it in long rectangles. “This is a solar charger. As long as you’re in the sun, this thing will provide power to your little machine. However, when you get back, I expect one of two things. Either you pay me three nobles a day for borrowing it and give that back to me, or I can sell it to you for one hundred royals.” Penny’s eyes went wide at the sheer amount of wealth being so casually discussed. 

Al Chuckled at her expression. “Penny, we are probably going to come back with more wealth than that. Whatever is located in that city, it’s valuable. And you can be sure the bastards who took Zeena will have plenty of wealth. Summoning fiends and rituals often require expensive and esoteric ingredients. Trust me on this. I’m fairly seasoned when it comes to this sort of thing.”

“And besides, you can always work off your debt to me if need be.” The woman smiled at Penny. “I could always use a hand around here.”

After they finished paying for and packing away the food Al requisitioned, the group set off into the Wasteland.


	11. Chapter 11

“Gods, I may just die from the heat!” Hammah complained, using one of the hats to fan himself. “Is it too much to ask for a little breeze?”

“It’s not called the Wasteland because it’s hospitable.” Al rolled the gems in his eyes. “Quit yapping, you’ll lose water that way.” He continued floating on, seemingly oblivious to the rest of his party’s discomfort. Hammah had stripped down to his loincloth and a thin cotton cloak that covered the rest of his body. It allowed the breezes to pass over his body and cool them down. That is, it would have if there was any breeze. 

“I’m with Fluffy.” Ianthe replied. Despite her fiendish heritage, she was still overheating as well. She was wearing baggy clothing, better for this weather than the heavy clothing Hammah was used to wearing. She was walking with her wings gently flapping, creating a gentle breeze, the same way an elephant might flap its ears. 

Penny just looked over at Al and rolled her eyes, a slight smile on her face. She was doing well with the heat. She had lived in heat like this all of her life. She didn’t want to tell Hammah, but the snow had been too cold for her. The only thing she liked about the cold was that she was able to cuddle close to him. But during the day, it was still cold, and they couldn’t cuddle all the time. Here, they were able to have a comfortable warmth in the day and chilly nights to hold each other close. 

Charkassus didn’t seem to mind the heat at all. They flew through the sky most of the time, keeping an eye out for anything that might try to approach them. They were enjoying themselves, riding the high thermals of the desert. Ianthe wished to fly with them, but she wasn’t going to leave her friends behind, slogging on the ground. 

It was late on the second day when Charkassus came hurtling to the ground. They let out a shrill squall as they hurtled downwards. Looking to the horizon, Ianthe saw a large could of dust coming at them. “How many are there?” She asked, running over to where Charkassus hit the ground. The dragon gave a single chirp. “Only one?” She looked back at the rest of the group. 

“Can we find somewhere cooler to fight?” Hammah asked. He pointed to what looked like a pile of large stones in the distance. “How about over there?” Al noticed the tumble of rocks and started floating off towards it. The rest of them followed behind Al, picking up speed to make it to cover before whatever was coming found them. 

As they got close, they realized the tumble of rocks was not natural. One side looked like a pile of fallen rocks, but the other was a flat face of concrete. Set into the base was a heavy metal door. Only the deepest crevices still had rust, the rest of the door scoured by years of wind-blown sand. Ianthe grabbed the door with all of her hands and heaved. Slowly, the door opened, screeching against the weight of years. 

When she had made a two-foot gap from the wall, Penny and Hammah bundled through. Dokami and Charkassus squeezed through next, the earth spirit forcing the door open farther. Al followed them. Only once everyone was in did Ianthe move to the inner side of the door and pull. Her muscles bunched as she heaved. Eventually, Al grabbed onto the door as well, adding his undead strength to the mix. Between the two of them, they were able to close the door by one foot before it got stuck. 

“I think that’s all we’re going to get.” Al commented. “Still, this may be enough.”

“What is this place?” Hammah asked, looking around. There were metal boxes with glowing lights and script around each light. There was a large pad of buttons under a clear screen. None of the symbols were familiar to him. In the far end of the hallway they found themselves in, there was a metal doorway. There was no rust around this door. 

“This is pre-Cataclysm tech.” Penny said, running a hand over the key pad. “I’ve seen these before…my family found a few farther north. They never let me go in them. From what I remember, there should be some areas below here.”

“I think that might be safer than waiting here for whatever was out there. And who knows, maybe this place might have tunnels.” Ianthe walked to the door.

“We’re still two days out from our target. Do you really think they would have a tunnel that connects them?” Al asked. 

“Underground Trains.” Ianthe shot back, pulling at the door. It wouldn’t budge. “They have them above ground, so why not below ground?”

“Here, let me.” Penny said, looking at the door. “It looks like the door is sealed by an internal mechanism. Try hitting it with lightning. That might damage whatever is in there.” She stepped back as Ianthe held her hand to the door and sent a cascade of lightning from her fingers to the door. Ianthe kept up the flow of electricity for a few moments before the door clicked and opened. 

“Come on, the faster we get down there, the faster we can forget about what’s out there.” Ianthe opened the door and looked inside. The stairs descended fourty feet before it turned left. 

“I’ll go first.” Al said, floating down the stairs. “Most traps won’t go off because of me.” They all watched as Al floated to the bottom landing. Looking back, he opened the door. There was a loud, sharp explosion and the wall where Al’s torso would have been erupted in flying bits on concrete. “Yeah, I would have gotten an earful if I let any of you take that.”

“Come on, I doubt they trapped every step.” Ianthe led the way to the base of the stairs. The others waited to see If anything attacked Ianthe before walking down after her. Charkassus and Dokami filed down last, the earth spirit pulling the door closed. 

Ianthe was surprised that the landing was large enough to hold them. Looking through the door, she saw a large, mostly empty room nearly half a kilometer in each direction. The roof was twenty feet in the air. The entire wall was made of concrete and there were stacked boxes and racks around all of the walls except for the middle half kilometer of the far wall. This one was pockmarked, as if something had gouged into it scores of times. 

“By the Serpent…” Penny muttered. “Imagine the sheer amount of work to make this. Who would need this?” Penny took a step forward. Hammah grabbed her and pointed to the shotgun pointing at the door.

“There could be more.” Nodding and favoring Hammah with a smile, Penny pulled out Amber and set it on the ground. 

“Amber, check ahead for any more traps. Specify pressure plates, light beams, and trip wires.” The small robot crept forwards, its large claws gingerly checking in front while its insectile abdomen glowed behind it. After a few minutes of searching the immediate area, Penny declared the spot safe from any traps. 

Ianthe went right to the shotgun. It was an old style, since before the Cataclysm. Most shotguns were still front loaded, with only a small few complex enough to use cartridges. Pulling the shotgun off its stock, she examined it, listening to her father’s baritone voice in her head. She first checked to make sure the gun was empty. After double checking the gun was not going to fire, she started checking all the moving parts. 

“Does it still work?” Hammah asked. He had started searching some of the shelves with Penny. 

“Well, since it just shot at Al, I’d say yes. It looks to be in good shape too. If I can just get some ammo for it…” Ianthe looked at some of the shelves close by. There were tins of food and water, blankets, clothing, and various sundry supplies. There were some bandages and broken glass bottles. 

“I think I found some ammo.” Al called out. They all jogged over to find Al looking into a wire cage door. “Also some more weapons and some, what looks like, power sources.” He tested the door, rattling it as he tried to open it. 

“Here, let me.” Penny pulled Amber over and started working on the door. After a few moments, the door sprang open. 

“Sweet!” Ianthe pressed in, looking around. There was ammo for guns, she could easily see that. There was a second shotgun, but no other guns. There was plenty of ammunition for the shotguns, but also they found ammo for other guns. Ianthe packed them, on the grounds no one else would use them and it could be useful. 

“You want to grab that?” Al asked, pointing to the glowing cylinder socketed into the wall.

“Are you trying to kill me?” Ianthe asked, lower hands on her hips as she reloads the shotgun. “I’m not enough of an idiot to do that.”

“Fine, I’ll do it.” Al reached out with a spectral hand and lifted the glowing cylinder. As he did so, there was a massive sound, decreasing from a wave of sound to nothing. The main lights in the large room turned off. “This will be useful back home.” He placed the cylinder in the bag inside of his head. 

“Hammah, do you want the other shotgun?” Ianthe asked, loading both of them. “It’d be cool, but I can’t really hold them well like this.” She put both shotgun butts on her hips. 

“Thanks…but no. Religious reasons. My clan does not sanction the use of guns or machines. They think they are a corrupting influence on the world. I had to take a vow to not use guns. I don’t care if you all use them, I just can’t.” He muttered, looking away from Penny. Penny and Ianthe shared a look. Ianthe was worried for her friend. She handed one of the shotguns to Penny. 

“Thanks. I guess I might as well use it, seeing how I already dabble in corruption.” Penny grabbed the shotgun and walked away, Amber following close behind her. Hammah flinched as if she had hit him.   
“You know, you could have just said no.” Ianthe said once Penny was far enough towards the only other door in the room. 

“I didn’t want to be dishonest.” Hammah sat on one of the upturned boxes. 

“Are you saying you don’t care about her?” Ianthe asked, picking up a tin of fruit and examining it thoughtlessly. “Because that’s what it sounded like.”

“I know.” Hammah kicked at dirt on the floor. “I wasn’t sure how to phrase it. I don’t mind that she uses all these technological advances. Heck, I like watching her work…it’s just that I have to think about the balance between the natural world and the sapient races who live upon it.” He flopped back onto the bed, looking at the roof. 

“Have you talked to her about this?” Ianthe asked. She could hear Al and Penny arguing about which way to go. She let them go on, glad to not be part of that conversation. 

Hammah shook his head. “No, it probably would have gone worse than this did.” 

“Wait, didn’t she spend the holidays with you?” Ianthe sat on the bed with him.

“She didn’t bring any of her machines with her. I had convinced her to leave them behind.” Hammah covered his eyes with frustration. “I knew we would have to talk about this at some point, I was just hoping it would happen later.”

“Why? That would have made it harder.”

Hammah groaned. “I know! I was just worried about it.” Hammah propelled himself to his feet. He started pacing near the bed. “I honestly don’t mind her using machines. I know my family and even my calling means I have to, but I don’t. If I fully accept what she does and say so, I will be kicked from my circle and possibly even from my family.”

“But if you don’t, you lose Penny.” Ianthe finished for him.

“Exactly.” He stopped. “Thank you for at least understanding my dilemma. I don’t know what to do, and I was wanting to put off that decision for as long as possible.”

“Then why don’t you tell her all of that?” Ianthe snorted. “Come on, we’re adults now. Just tell her everything and work on it together. That’s how my parents do it. When they have hard decisions, they talk it out. I’ve never seen them have an argument that they couldn’t work out, even if it meant asking friends.” Ianthe stood and looped an arm around Hammah’s shoulders. “Now get over there and tell her all that you told me.” She gave him a four-armed thrust towards Penny.

Al floated over, taking Hammah’s place at Ianthe’s side. “That one knows how to fix the scales.” He settled himself onto one of Ianthe’s sword hilts. “She won’t even budge. She wants us to go farther down and see if we can make it to the city through a tunnel.”

“So? Wouldn’t that be easier?” Ianthe asked. 

“Not really. Look, the surface sucks, and it’s great down here, ya?” Ianthe nodded. “Well, we can’t be the only ones to think so. There is going to be a lot of stuff down there.” 

“Still, I’m happier to be out of the scorching sun.” Ianthe replied, resting her lower hands on Al’s skull. They looked over at Hammah and Penny. Hammah had his hands shoved into his pockets while Penny’s were idling on the shotgun. As they talked, the tension seemed to grow. Ianthe was worried that Penny might actually shoot Hammah from the sheer amount of visible tension. Finally, Penny put the gun on the floor and stepped forwards, pulling Hammah into a hug. Clearly surprised, Hammah hesitated for a few moments before hugging her back. 

“Hammah…thank you for telling me this.” Penny muttered into his chest.

“I’m sorry I didn’t talk about this sooner.” He whispered into her hair. He took a deep sniff of her scent. Penny’s hand grabbed one of his. 

“As long as we are being honest…I need to be honest too.” Penny’s hands gripped hard on his shirt and arm. Hammah stayed quiet, giving her the time she needed, the same way she had given him the time he needed. Slowly, she pulled his hand down. At first, he thought she wanted a closer hug, but she kept pulling his hand farther and farther down. His eyes widened as she placed his hand over her crotch. Gently she pressed it in. 

“Penny, may I ask you a question?” Hammah asked, brows knitting together. Not trusting her voice, Penny nodded into his chest. “Is that a penis?” Penny stiffened in his arms. He realized she was shivering with fear. His hands started to fill with her nervous arousal. He kept his hand where it was. He thought of what he should say. Hundreds of phrases flowed through his mind.

Part of him wanted to ask her why she hadn’t said anything sooner. A part of him wanted to take his hand away to keep talking, while another part was fighting to keep his hand there. He could hear the voices of his family clamor in his ear, telling him that she was an abomination for consorting with machines and guns. He could hear the bubbly voice of Zeena and Ianthe’s lower rumble telling him to make the choice himself. And then there was Penny, leaning into him, her body shivering in fear. 

The moment of decision seemed to stretch on forever. Finally, Hammah made his decision. Shutting out all of the voices in his head, he gently leaned in to Penny. “Thank you.” He whispered to her. They stood there for a minute, neither of them moving. Finally, Penny’s head came up.

“You’re still here?” There was slight disbelief in her voice, tinted with hopefulness.

“Yes. I’ve made my choice.” He leaned down and kissed her gently, a fleeting touch of the lips. Penny grabbed the back of his head as he pulled away and rammed his lips back to hers. Her hand left his arm and she started fumbling with the front ties of his cloak.

“EW!” They heard Al’s voice call from only a few feet away. “If you bios are going to do nasty things, at least have the decency to get a room.”

There was a crack of bone hitting bone as Ianthe punched the floating skull. “Idiot! They’re having a moment. Let them have it.” Ianthe growled.

“Well, that moment was about to become a very long rendezvous. We have placed to be and things to do.” Al grumbled. Penny and Hammah broke away. While the moment was shattered, the smile they shared and the heat they felt in their still clasped hands promised that the moment wasn’t lost forever. 

“So, Penny, headed down?” Ianthe pointed to the one door in the room that led to the stairs. As Penny nodded, Ianthe threw open the door into the dark confines of the large stairwell. Coming up from below there was a steady, slow drip, the chittering tapping of chitin on stone, and a gust of cold, musty air. Racking the shotgun, more for the sound than the need, Ianthe looked over her shoulders at her companions. “Let’s get going.”


	12. Chapter 12

Deciding to stow her shotgun for now, Ianthe crept forwards with a scimitar in her left upper hand and the pistol in her upper right hand. She used her lower hands to track the wall and keep her balance. Al, able to see farther in the dark than anyone else, floated next to Ianthe. Hammah and Pennie came behind, Amber crawling down the steps to provide some light for them. Dokami and Charkassus came last, making sure nothing crept up on the group. 

The stairwell led them another fifty feet deeper underground. The musty smell grew stronger until the walls themselves started to feel moist and tacky with slime. Pulling her hand away, Ianthe slowed as they got to the bottom, looking at the one heavily rusted door. Al gently pushed on the door with his spectral hand. There was a loud squeal as part of the rusted section broke away. They could hear the metal clamor as it hit the concrete and echo through the space beyond. 

“Well, that’s not safe. Let me.” Al pushed through the rest of door, opening it wide enough for them all to pass through without getting scraped by the rusted iron. Ianthe looked around. She saw there was a map under some glass on one wall. There were some benches, tiles on the wall, and a long gouge in the middle of the cylindrical room. In the gouge were train tracks. There was no sign of the train. “Based on this map, Penny was right.” Al said, no hint of unhappiness in his voice. “Well, we could go this way…but we do not know if there are any cave ins.”

“Come on, what’s the harm in trying?” Ianthe was frustrated with Al. “Out there, the heat might hurt us and we know it’s dangerous. Down here, we are safe from the sun and we won’t have to face the raiders.”

“Fine, if you think Zeena can spare a few days if you are wrong.” Al jabbed back, shoving that in her face.

“I’m willing to take the risk.” Ianthe growled. She turned to Hammah and Penny. “And you?” Penny and Hammah shared a look. 

“Yeah, I think we can do this.” Penny said. “Hammah, can you change into an animal that can tell if there are any collapses ahead?”

“Maybe. But it will be limited by my ability to understand the information coming at me. I doubt that I can be reliable.” Hammah shrugged. “But I’d rather be nice and cool down here than continue to fry up there.”

“It’s not that hot, but if we can avoid more confrontation by being down here, then I think we should take the safer route.” Penny added. 

“Fine, we stay down here.” Al grumbled. Hammah, hearing the verdict, took his clothing from his pack and started dressing again. Ianthe noticed that this time, Penny did not look away, and was actually checking out his body. 

“See anything you like?” Ianthe leaned in right behind Penny’s ear. The smaller woman jumped, blushing so hard she nearly went nova.

“Yeah…I like his extra fluff. None of the elves in the clans are anything but lithe or bony. I’m actually able to cuddle him and feel comfortable.” Penny bit her lower lip.

“And the bulge?” Ianthe asked, the voice of innocence.

“Yeah, that too.” Penny smiled up at her. Ianthe was taken aback. The normally quiet and passive Penny had a glint of ravenous hunger in her eyes when she mentioned his endowments. Ianthe made a mental note to tell Zeena, once they rescued her, to not shout encouragements through the wall this time. 

“Well, are we going or what?” Al called from the train tracks. Rolling her eyes, Ianthe pumped her wings and glided off into the gorge, landing on the tracks. Hammah and Penny followed at a more sedate pace, taking their time to safely lower themselves and Amber to the tracks. The moment Dokami touched the dirt, they disappeared inside of the earth. “Right…I forgot you could do that. Hey, Dokami, think you can go ahead and make sure there aren’t any cave ins?”

One of Dokami’s arms shot out of the ground and waved. Without even a ripple, they flowed through the earth and down the passageway. Taking point with Al, Ianthe led the way down the tunnel. Even with Amber’s glowing eye as a light, the darkness pressed in around them. The small amount of light provided by the power crystal wasn’t enough to push back the oppressive dark that had reigned for nearly two centuries. They could barely see the sides and roof of the tunnel, the light becoming faint more than ten feet away from them. To make matters worse, as Amber was in the middle of their group, they all cast wild shadows on every surface nearby. 

For the first twenty minutes of their trip, the only noise was the crunching of boots and claws as well as the mechanical whirring of Amber. None of them dared to talk, as the silence, while not as all pervasive as the darkness, held more menace by far. Only Al had ever been in a place as quiet as this, and he did not care to remember such a time. It was a dark time that he wished to forget. As he floated along, a voice drifted into his consciousness.

I see you’ve come back. It is always so good to see the lost find their way home.

“What do you mean, lost?” Al replied. 

“Al, we’re not lost. It’s a straight line. All we have to do is follow the tracks.” Ianthe said slowly, knowing that sometimes her Uncle could be a little slow with meanings. 

“Of course not…how would we get lost.” Al rolled his gem eyes. Must have been a trick of the darkness. The darkness continued to press in on them as they travelled. 

A few hours passed in near silence, with only the barest of words spared. The group was coming to understand that both routes presented their own dangers. While they were protected from the sun underground, they had replaced it with the ever-present darkness, their imaginations populating the ruins every time they saw a shadow of debris. The air, while no longer sapping the very liquid from their bodies, was no so over saturated that their clothing soon became damp, sweat beading on their brows even in the crisp air. 

They only stopped when they came upon Dokami again. They were standing still in the shadows, eyes clearly fixated upon a glow of light in the distance. As the rest of the group gathered around, it downed on them that the light was flashing. 

“What’s up there Dokami?” Ianthe asked. The multi-armed earth spirit’s mouth opened, showing sharp digging teeth and heavy crunching teeth in many rows in their lamprey-like mouth. Grinding noises came out of the maw.

“They say that there are creatures up there. Some are flying, some look to be earth, and there are a lot of fleshy creatures from the surface that have come down to get water.” Al listened more to the earthen crunches. “Basically, there is a cave in ahead. It won’t stop our progress, but that’s where things from up top come down for shade and water. They keep mentioning the earth-like creatures that aren’t made of earth.”

They all looked at each other. There wasn’t enough information for them to make an identification. None of them blamed Dokami. They were an elemental spirit, with different perceptions than mortal creatures. “Well, no use heading back now. Besides, we need somewhere to rest.” Ianthe pulled out the shotgun, the danger clearly in front of them. 

Slowly, they made their way forwards. The light was much farther off than any of them had realized. Another hour passed before they got close. As they got closer, they heard the dripping of water. As they approached the lake, they saw stalactites and stalagmites dotting the tunnel. Amber played their light over the pond of water and the sides of the tunnel. They could see some light funneling in from up above. There looked to be a natural ramp heading up to the surface. While the tunnel had been only about fifty feet across, this must have been one of the stations, as the sides stretched an additional sixty feet each way and another twenty feet up. 

Hammah turned his head to the side. “Hey, aren’t stalagmites and stalactites made from dripping water?” He asked.

“Yeah.” Penny answered. “They are made from mineral…” She stopped explaining as Hammah pointed to what had caught his eye. Her eyes widened at the sight. 

“Then why are those on the side of the wall?” He was pointing his spear at what looked like the mineral pillars on the sides of the wall. His voice echoed through the area. 

“By the Shifter!” Al muttered. “Those aren’t mineral deposits.” Ianthe leveled her shotgun at the closet stalagmite. Flicking off the safety, she pulled the trigger. The cacophony of the blast after the near silence of the tunnel nearly deafened them. Instead of hearing crumbling rock, there was an agonized scream. The party all looked at the stalagmite. A huge hole was carved out of the side. Greenish ichor leaked down from the hole. 

The stalagmite turned, showing writhing tentacles on the bottom, a large, singular eye, and a gapping mouth filled with scores of sharp teeth. The creature screamed at them, tentacles flailing. Upon hearing the scream, a chorus of replies came from around the cavern. Most of the stalagmites and stalactites started to converge on them.

“So, do you all want to stay in here or head up to the surface?” Al asked. His eyes glowed, one of them a dark green and the other a bright white. With a bellowing cackle, he flew at the closest one, his teeth sinking into the stone with ease and started shaking the creature like a terrier shaking a rat. The small skull lifted the abominable creature into the air as he shook. Opening his mouth, he let the dead body collapse to the ground. 

Ianthe racked the shotgun and fired at another one of the creatures. Continuing to rack the shotgun, she fired into the pillars around her, blowing gouts of stone and corrupted flesh from the bodies. Al, mind burning with righteous rage at the corrupted creatures, sped off, biting massive gouts of stone from the creatures. Dokami followed close behind, each of their arms slamming into the hard, pointed bodies of the creatures. 

Penny turned to fire in the other direction, protecting Ianthe’s back. She wasn’t anywhere near as skilled with guns as Ianthe was, nor did she have the body mass Ianthe had to make up for the lack of skill. Most of her shots scattered between multiple targets, creating small scores and chips from them rather than removing large chunks. Amber stood to the left, aiming their eye at a target before letting out a small blast of lightning. Their claws clacked, almost as if they anticipated getting into combat. 

Standing to her other side, Hammah muttered a few words. Nothing seemed to happen. “Don’t worry Hammah, they say it happens to all casters eventually.” Al called out, cackling as he dove towards a large group of the creatures. 

“What’s wrong?” Penny asked, her hands shaking as she tried to reload the shotgun. 

“I need to have access to the sky for the spell I was using. I need something to concentrate the moonlight. Here, let me.” He took the shotgun and started slotting the rounds in it quickly, almost as if he had practiced. 

Penny’s eyes widened. “I have something.” Reaching into her bag, she pulled out her small flying thropter. “This has a refraction crystal in it. You can use it.”

Hammah looked down at the machine, then the gun in his hand. While he didn’t think reloading the gun in combat for Penny would break any strictures, just bend them, if he took the machine, he would have betrayed everything he had been raised to believe. Even in this dire situation, he had been told that death was preferable to dishonoring their ways by using machines. 

He looked at Penny. It was all well and good if he held his beliefs if it was only his life in the balance. But then there was Penny’s life. She had told him her deepest secret after he had already, no matter how accidentally, rebuked her. If he refused again, she might not forgive him, if they lived. Then again, she might still, knowing how he was raised. 

“Hammah, take it!” Penny screamed, shoving the thropter into his hands as she took the gun back. The closest of the creatures was only fifty feet away. Charkassus had joined the fray, sending larger bolts of lighting jumping between the stalagmites. Penny moved forwards, standing between the arcing bolts of lighting, blasting her shotgun into the mass of abominations.

Looking around, Hammah realized they were still severely outnumbered. Ianthe had already dropped her shotgun and was firing her pistol, lances of radiant energy flashing against the rocky surface of their foes. Shaking his head, he came to a decision. Tossing the small thropter in the air, he watched it start to fly. Canting the invocation once again, he focused his concentration on the thropter. The focusing crystal moved into position, and a large beam of pure moonlight crashed into the ground, flaying all below with radiant force. 

Concentration still on the thropter, he gave it a command to sweep back and forth across the battlefield. Taking a deep breath, he pushed the concentration on that spell to the back of his mind, the way he had been taught. With the spell now running mostly on its own, he could go and help Penny. Running forwards, he raced to the oncoming line of creatures. He felt his body morph from that of a human to that of a large bruin as he crashed into the creatures, bowling them over with his mass and swiping paws.

Ianthe cursed. She had unloaded two full clips from the shotgun and a full clip from her revolver yet there were still more coming at her. She currently had both scimitars out, slamming the blades into the tentacles, eyes, and tooth-filled maws. Al and Dokami were beside her, fighting back to back. She knew that if something didn’t change, and soon, they would be overwhelmed by these monsters. Fear started creeping into her mind, threatening to overwhelm her. 

Fear! That was what Ree had been working on with her. They had yet to cast a single spell with necrotic energy, but they had worked a lot with fear. Gathering lightning in her lower hands, Ianthe made a powerful double slash with her blades to clear room as her lower hands shot out forwards. An explosion of thunderous energy smote the air in front of her, sending the monsters flying backwards. 

In the free space she bought for herself, Ianthe gathered up her remaining energy and crossed her blades over her chest. In an upward sweep, she ran the blades against each other, the point of contact for the blades barely an inch off her nose. The moment the blades separated, the ghostly white energy gathering in her lower palms erupted. While there was nothing physically different about Ianthe, every aspect of her invoked fear, from the twist of her curling horns to the snap of her long tail to her cloven feet. She let out a scream of anger, trying to force the creatures away. 

As the abominations gazed upon Ianthe, they took flight from the battle. Stomping forwards, Ianthe forced the creatures around to flee, opening a pathway to the surface. Turning, she saw that Charkassus and Penny were still in combat. She couldn’t see Hammah but could hear Penny calling his name, desperation tinging the edges of her shotgunning fury. Rushing forwards with Al and Dokami a few steps behind, she brought her blades down on the closest of these abominations. She missed as the creatures she approaches started running away, pressing back through their companions. As they cleared away from her dragon and roommate, Ianthe saw Hammah. 

Penny ran towards her boyfriend before Ianthe could figure out what to do. He was being dragged behind one of the creatures, trying to stab it with his spear while one arm was dangling in its mouth. Racking two slugs into the shotgun, Penny caught up with the creature and shot it point blank. Rock and ichor flew everywhere as Penny slew the creature. Hammah fell to the ground, his right arm a ruin of meat and bone. Penny let out a cry of anguish as she looked over his body. She tried lifting him, her arms shaking. 

Ianthe pushed Penny out of the way, lifting Hammah. “Come on…I can’t hold this long.” Penny turned to see Al already holding Amber in his hand. Dokami was holing the thropter in one hand and gliding through the earth while Al flew. Both were making for the ramp up into the sun-lit world. Bunching her legs, Ianthe took a few running steps and launched herself into the air, flying Hammah out of the reach of the creatures and up into the sunlight. Penny was about to panic when she felt a pair of dragon claws grip her under her arms and lift her into the air. Charkassus chirped and pumped their wings, speeding the last of the group out of the dark death trap they had found themselves in.

Blinding light seared their eyes after the hours underground. They all toppled to the ground, too disoriented to move. Penny groped her way till she found Ianthe’s tail and started sliding her way up the tall demoness’s body, till she found the arms and followed them down to Hammah. She let out a pained cry when she touched him. Already, he was burning up while his skin was clammy. 

“Hammah! Hammah, can you hear me.” Hammah only moaned in response to Penny’s voice. Tears streamed down the small elf’s face, blurring her already unfocused sight further. She started looking around his pouches. “Come on, you must have something. Doesn’t anyone have something to fix him?” Her voice was cracking, jumping between three different octaves and more than a few broken notes. Her hands scrabbled through his pockets and pouches till she found the cache of healing berries he had summoned earlier. “H…he…here…eat these. It will…you’ll be better.” Her hands shook as she tried to place a few in his mouth.

Dropping Amber to the sand, Al whispered to Ianthe. “Look at the arm…I’ve only seen this once before. It doesn’t matter if she feed him the berries. It will only delay the inevitable.” Ianthe whirled on Al, tears in her eyes. 

“So you’re just giving up! Like that? Were all those stories about your bravery and selflessness false? You just want us to let him die?” Without realizing it, she turned the fear aura on Al, her blades jumping to her hands. 

Al shook himself. “No. But look at his arm. Whatever is in the saliva of those creatures will keep eating at him.” He moved closer to Ianthe, as equally unaffected by her menacing aura as he was immune to her anger. “I’ve seen this once before.” He looked from the arm to Ianthe. “You have to take his arm. We don’t have any magic powerful enough to stop this. All that will work is removing the afflicted area.” 

Ianthe and Penny gasped at the same time. They looked down at Hammah. The bleeding seemed to have stopped with the healing berries she had gotten him to eat, but he still looked in pain, and the arm was a ruin. Bone stuck out of the muscle at odd angles, sharps poking through his skin in dozens of places. Where there was still saliva from the creature on him, they could see the flesh parting under the caustic onslaught. 

With tears in her eyes, Penny looked up at Ianthe. The desperation in her eyes tore at the young woman’s heart. Penny looked as if her world was breaking apart as she held him in her arms. Forcing herself to move, Ianthe dropped one of the blades, taking the remaining scimitar in both of her upper hands. With her lower ones, she grabbed Hammah’s body. Al grabbed the damaged hand and pulled it straight. 

Ianthe wiped the tears from her eyes. She couldn’t afford to have them mess up her vision. Looking down, she selected a place in the arm six inches from the shoulder. “I’m sorry.” Her voice was thick as her words hitched in her throat. Pulling together the last scraps of her magical energy, she focused them into her blade. It started to hum with barely contained lightning. “Penny, be ready to feed him the rest of the berries once I do this.”

In one swift stroke, Ianthe brought her blade down. The energized steel cut through bone and flesh as easily as it had cut through the air. The smell of cooked flesh wafted into Ianthe’s nostrils, causing her to gag and retch. She tossed the blade away, disgusted with what she had to do to save her friend. 

Penny watched in horror as the blade came down and Hammah’s arm was cut off. She quickly shoved the remaining berries in his mouth, working his jaw so the juice would flow down his throat. Her body shook with wracking, silent sobs. Rivers of tears poured down her face and onto Hammah as she pulled him to her chest. 

Looking down at the wound, Penny pulled out the small package of bandages she kept at her side. Opening the disinfecting ointment, she dabbed a large dollop on the bandage and placed it directly over the wound. Hammah gasped in pain as she did so, arching his back unconsciously. Tears still falling from her eyes, she quickly tied up the bandage so it wouldn’t slip. When she was done, she continued to sit there, cradling Hammah in her arms. 

Al looked down at his niece and her friends in pity. Adventuring was a hard life, and most adventurers don’t make it. This wasn’t the first time he had seen a loved one perform battlefield surgery, nor would it have been the first time he had seen a companion killed. He knew the pain they were going through, which made what he had to do even harder. “Come on, we need to go.”   
Ianthe was up in an instant, all four hands wrapped around his skull, as if she could crush him with them. Bringing him to her face, she screamed. “How in the Hells can you say that! How can you be so calm after everything we went through?” 

“We need to get moving before dark. Those things could come back to attack us again. And we need a place to hole up so Hammah can recover…and not just him.” Ianthe looked where her uncle was pointing. Ianthe was covered in minor acid burns and cuts all over her arms, legs, and tail. Penny was worse, with blood caked around one ear and blood over most of her cut clothing, a majority of it her own blood. Angered by Al’s sensibleness, despite what had just happened, she spiked him into the blasted land at her feet with all of her strength. There was a loud crack as part of the skull fractured, but Al merely brought himself back to his normal floating height.

“There looks to be a tower north of here, maybe only an hour’s walk. We can spend the night there.” Al pulled out some poles and canvas from the bag inside of his head. “Now come here and help me make a travois for Hammah to ride in.” 

Heart heavy, Ianthe helped Al set up the travois and hoisted Hammah onto it. Grabbing their fallen weapons, she stowed them before picking up the wide end. As if in a daze, the party moved forwards, heading north towards their final destination.


	13. Chapter 13

The building turned out to be a tower with three stories. The first story was made of concrete with a metal door that screamed as they opened it. Most of the door seemed to be rusted through, even though it made a heavy, solid clang when they closed it. There was an open stairwell to the second floor. Al checked the second floor. It was fairly similar to the first floor. No windows and smooth concrete walls. Whatever had been in here once before was gone. Nothing remained on wither floor. There was a trapdoor and ladder leading to the upper floor. Al tried the door, and it was jammed shut. Flying around the outside of the tower, he saw that sand had gathered from storms in the relative calm of the covered third floor. Giving a mental shrug, he figured it was a safe location for them. 

Everyone had been silent during the trudge to this lonely sentinel. Penny and Ianthe had each taken a side of the travois. While Ianthe could have done it alone, Penny refused to let go. Her mouth was pinched and set, anger blazing in her eyes. She moved with a purpose, her smaller legs almost out pacing Ianthe’s erratic stride. 

While Penny seemed driven by a barely contained rage, Ianthe was trudging through the world as if she wasn’t in control of her body. The horror of what she had just done weighed her mind and put her in a fog. She had never thought that adventuring would be this dangerous. Everything her family had told her made her think differently. They always seemed to be able to pull off victory even from the jaws of defeat, especially when they worked together.

They pulled Hammah up to the second floor, where the ground was smoother and they were able to set up the travois at an angle to make him comfortable while he recovered. The moment Penny sat down, she started crying. It was a slow build. Her shoulders started to move in small shakes. Soon, her whole body was shaking, tears falling in rivers from her eyes. Her sobs came through moments later, building the same way her shakes had. 

Her sobs broke through the fog in Ianthe’s head. Falling to her knees, Ianthe pulled Penny onto her lap and wrapped her six upper limbs around the girl. Penny grabbed onto Ianthe, weeping and sniffling into her friend’s shirt. Dokami and Charkassus, understanding the need for privacy, went downstairs and tried to ignore what was happening by playing a game with some of the stones they found. Al floated nearby, watching over the three kids. 

Ianthe felt her crystal buzz. Looking at the crystal, it was her mother. She ignored it. Right now, she couldn’t face anyone, especially not her family. She had dragged her friends into something they should have never been a part of and now she had failed to keep them safe. The crystal buzzed for a few minutes as Lillia tried calling her daughter multiple times. 

Ianthe finally heard her mother’s voice directly in her head. “Pick up your damn crystal! Where the fuck are you? Al told me nothing, now you, Zeena, and he are all gone! Call me now!” She felt the magic from the spell remain in her head, giving her a chance to reply. She knew that if she refused to answer or call her mother, Lillia was powerful enough to keep talking in her head.

Begrudgingly, she pulled the crystal out and focused on her mother. Lillia’s image appeared, her hair wild and face twisted with anger. When she saw Ianthe’s and Penny’s tear stained faces, her expression cooled immediately. “What’s wrong?” The concern in her voice caused a new wave of tears from Ianthe.

“Mom, I messed up.” Ianthe cried. “Zeena was kidnapped and I went after her. I dragged Al, Penny, and Hammah with me to get her back.”

“What happened dear?” Lillia asked, chaffing that she couldn’t comfort her daughter.

“We decided to take a train tunnel in the Wasteland to avoid the light. These…these things attacked us. We had to flee. Hammah…” Fresh sobs burst forth.

“His arm was demolished and infected, the same as Adria’s leg had been when we closed the Gate.” Al floated into the crystal’s view. 

“My Babies!” Lillia cried into the crystal. “No one should have to go through that. Why didn’t you call us?”

“This is my mission. I’ve grown up all my life hearing about you, Aunt Zilvra, Aunty Adria, Uncle Al, and even Grandpa! You were all adventurers. And here…here was my chance. Zeena was stolen. A fiend told us where to get her back. I had to go.”

Lillia sighed, tears falling from her eyes. She couldn’t blame her daughter. They knew she was going to be an adventurer. They had tried to set her up for it, but maybe they had sugar coated it too much. Biting her lip, she asked, “Is Hammah alive?” Ianthe nodded. “Al, pull out the small pouch Gillian gave you. Inside is going to be a large potion. I don’t have anything to bring the arm back, but the least I can do is give you some healing supplies.”

“Are you sure it will work?” Al asked. “I haven’t used that in over a decade.”

“Gillian informed me it will still work. We’re currently in the Steelen tower. Shiba and Belladona are inconsolable. Where are you all headed?”

“There is a large city in the Wasteland, a ruin. It’s East of Karak city by a few days. If you can find anything out about it, please let us know.” Al replied. He pulled out the small satchel and held up the jar of ointment that was placed in there.

“We will. I’m sure Queen Aimee will be willing to send some troops to follow to rescue her niece once we tell her. There are four doses in there. Rub it into the wound once per day. It will heal the wound, prevent infection, and get him moving again.” Lillia sighed. “Your father is still in with them, trying to work out a plan. Just know that you haven’t failed. Hammah is still alive, you all are still alive. As long as you are still alive, you can complete the mission.” There was a long pause. “And I’m sorry. I’m sorry we didn’t prepare you adequately for the horrors that we faced.”

“Thank you.” Penny whispered when Ianthe didn’t reply. The call ended, the crystal dimming. Penny took the ointment and took a dollop, rubbing it into Hammah’s fresh wound. Hammah gasped, opening his eyes. He looked down at his stump. His eyes watered as he looked at Penny. He noticed her eyes were raw and her face gave off a defeated look. His remaining hand came up and touched her. He then winced at the pain in his arm.

“I’m alive…” He muttered.

“We couldn’t let you die.” Penny whispered back, stoppering the jar and handing it back to Al. “But we had to take your arm.”

“I’m glad you did. Even an angel who looks like you wouldn’t be anywhere as wonderful as you are.” He smiled. Penny fell against him, holding him close to her. 

“I’m sorry. This is my fault.” Ianthe kicked at the ground. 

“No, it’s not.” Hammah shook his head. “You saved my life. I chose to come along with you two. I could have said no…but I didn’t want to hear Penny got hurt because there was no one around to heal her.”

“And what about you? There was no one here to heal you. We got lucky with those berries.” Penny snapped. “Did you think I would just move on if you got yourself killed!”

Hammah was silent for a moment at the suddenness of her fury. His mouth opened and closed, but nothing came out. Finally, he seemed to have collected his thoughts. “I was just trying to help. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“Well, you did. You owe me for the pain you’ve caused.” She nuzzled into him. “It’s going to take a long time for you to sooth the pain in my heart.”

“I’ll gladly pay that price.” He tried to pull himself up. His arm moved as if he wanted to bring his right hand to his head. There was a moment where they all looked at the missing hand. 

“Hey, let me give you a hand.” Al said. 

“Al, seriously? This isn’t the time for jokes.” Ianthe snapped. 

“Who’s joking? I know how hard it is to only have one hand.” Ianthe’s anger abated as she realized that Al, out of all of them, was probably in the best place to help Hammah. 

They spent the rest of the day and night there. Hammah slept for most of the time, his body still trying to recover from losing his arm. During the day, he managed to stay awake long enough to eat and to try to cast some spells. He was able to eat much better than he was able to cast any spells. Without his second arm, he wasn’t able to complete the somatic components for most of his spells. He did figure out that he was able to transform into an animal shape with all of its limbs. 

As the morning dawned, everyone rose to find Ianthe pacing. She was outside, trying to remain quiet. Hammah walked out to her first. “So, you ready to go save your little vampire friend?”

Ianthe chuckled. “You have no idea how hard it was to not run off in the middle of the night and try by myself.”

“Really, and how far would you have gotten before we caught you? And then you would have just felt like an idiot.”

“But you’ll get hurt again!” Ianthe kicked at a rock, sending it flying. Before it landed, Dokami rose from the ground and batted it back.

“And you’ll be there to save me again…but what would happen if we weren’t there to rescue you when you get pulled under.” Hammah brought his arm up and tried to complete a spell. The magic, unable to be focuses correctly, dissipated in a rust colored cloud. “I’ll get it soon. At least I can still do this.” He spiraled his hand down to the ground. The rust colored energy followed and sunk into the ground. Moments later, a small vine grew and ten cherry sided berries grew. Quickly, he picked them and put nine of them in a pouch. “One of the few things I can do with one hand.” He popped the last one in his mouth. 

“Do those really help?” Ianthe took the stone from Dokami and threw it, watching the earth spirit chase the stone. 

“They help with the pain and the shock. They’ll never regrow the arm.” He gently rubbed the stump. 

“You could replacement. They’ve done wonderful…”

“No.” Hammah cut her off. “Using the machine yesterday was one thing. I was trying to save Penny’s life. But I will not accept a machine as part of me. That’s something I can’t do.” He sighed and pulled out the thropter. “I still don’t like that I’m holding this thing, but it’s useful. I just…It’s too much.” He moved his stump.

“Not even one made of wood? That’s what my aunt has.” Ianthe offered. Hammah just shook his head. 

“It’s the principle.” He stopped her with his arm. “I’ve already gone so far against my clan’s traditions. I cannot go any farther.”

“And Penny?” 

“It’s either I take the arm or I accept Penny. I cannot betray three strictures. There would be…severe consequences. So I figure, as long as I have Penny, I can live with one arm.” He turned to go back inside.

“What are the consequences?” Ianthe asked, looking at the horizon.

“Death. As it is, I will only be stripped of my titles and disowned.” Ianthe continued to look at the distance until she heard the door close. Once it did, her shoulders dropped. The guilt of what her adventure was costing Hammah compounded, becoming almost unbearable. 

“Sucks, doesn’t it.” Al’s voice, normally sarcastic, was empathetic. “Feeling like you’re the reason your friends get hurt, why they are suffering. I know how it feels.” Ianthe nodded, biting her lower lip, trying to refrain from crying. Al nestled against her head, giving her a hug.

“Thanks Al. I promise I will make this right for everyone.” He grabbed him and squeezed him back.


	14. Chapter 14

“Come on, we need to keep going.” Ianthe was watching the sunset from the doorway of the tower they had been recovering in. “We don’t know how long Zeena has to live.” She fingered her pistol. All of the charge crystals were full, and she made sure the pistol was loose in its holster. 

“I doubt they are going to kill her any time soon.” Hammah replied, leaning against his spear. He still looked wan, but his voice was steady. “If they were going to, would the fiend have told us to come save her?”

“Yeah. They have no reason to tell the truth if it isn’t against their orders.” Al finished packing their gear in his sack before shoving it into his skull. “On the other hand, could be working a long con and trying to win a favor from us.” Ianthe shook her head. She looked over at Penny. The small elf hadn’t said much over the past few days.

“Are you ok?” Ianthe asked as Hammah and Al led the way northwards. Charkassus and Dokami followed, giving Penny and Ianthe some privacy for their conversation. 

“No. It’s Hammah.” Penny toyed with the action of the one shotgun they had left. They had decided to let Penny use the gun, as Ianthe already had her pistol. “He…he’s different. There’s something off about him.”

“Have you asked him about it?” Inathe asked, hooking her lower hands into her belt as her upper ones fidgeted with each other. 

“I can’t. Every time I look at him, I remember it’s my fault. He wouldn’t be here if not for me dragging him along. And now he won’t even take a replacement arm. If we go on, he’s going to get himself killed. But if we turn back, Zeena dies.” Ianthe opened her mouth, but shut it when she saw the glare Penny gave her. “And don’t say I can leave with Hammah. I’m not going to let you die as well.” She marched off, catching up with the rest of the group. 

Ianthe hung back from the group for the rest of the day. They continued to shuffle forwards. It wasn’t till early the next day that they saw the city break the horizon. It was still hours away, but the tallest of the buildings were visible as black or shining smudges on the horizon. As the hours ticked away, the ruined city grew larger, till they could see the outlines of the tall skyscrapers and the tops of the smaller buildings. 

Al, despite not having the lips for it, whistled. “And I thought the City of Mirrors had a lot of skyscrapers.” They all thought back to the seven monolithic towers from the City of Mirrors. Those had been their basis for scale when it came to large buildings. Skyscrapers a few kilometers square, with the shortest reaching three kilometers in height, the tallest nearly twice that size. 

These, while nearly as tall as the smallest of the giants from the City of Mirrors, were nowhere near as wide, but they were vastly more numerous. A quick count brought Ianthe up to at least two dozen full or nearly full-sized ones, with at least two score broken around the mid-point scattered through the rest of the city. 

“Think this is what they were trying to hit with the Comet?” Ianthe asked Al quietly. Al gave her a furtive look, making sure that the others didn’t hear over their conversation. Ianthe was one of the few people to be privy to the secret that the comet had not struck the planet by accident. 

“Yeah.” He pulled up a map in his head. “From what we pieced together, Bartzarius was a few miles east of here when he performed the ritual and it is in line with the temple at Ponphos where the comet hit.”

“Wait…why would they try to land a comet a few miles from where they were?” Ianthe turned a questioning eye on Al. 

“Who knows. Your grandfather hung out with some crazy people.” Al chuckled nervously before rushing off to fly with Charkassus.

“Cheeky bastard.” She muttered. The account of what happened with the comet never sat right with her. For some reason, he parents were very vague on the subject, despite having won most of their fame from their actions. 

They came upon the outskirts of the city as the sun was setting. It was a collection of small, one story buildings. A few dozen houses, some store fronts, and a large brick government center. Most of the buildings had tumbled down from disuse and the passage of time, but the stone buildings were still standing. Weapons drawn, they walked into the small hamlet. The only noise came from their footfalls and the wind through the broken buildings. 

They made their way to one of the stores that seemed to have a residence over it. Stepping carefully, Ianthe entered first, her cloven feet echoing in the silence. All of her weapons were out, with one hand left for examining anything she came across. Those shelves that remained were covered in burnt objects, unrecognizable from their age. 

A noise from the back caused them all to freeze. Weapons slowly raised as Al took the lead, silently floating to the source of the noise. Slowly, he rose over the counter and entered the door into the back room. He floated there for a moment before a blurred movement slammed into him, sending him rocketing into Ianthe’s chest. The demonic woman toppled over, the air slammed from her lungs. 

“My home! Leave! Leave!” The squeaky voice pierced the air. From the back room came a creature that might have once had a human ancestor, but now it was a twisted, melted fusion of a rat and human. Clumps of fur grew out of flesh that looked to have melted like candle wax. Red-rimmed, bulging eyes stared at them as foam jumped from its cracked lips as it screeched from its tooth filled maw. A large, makeshift maul was held in its lanky arms. 

“We’ll leave.” Penny squeaked out, shotgun shaking in her hands. Amber revved up beside her, getting ready to launch a bolt of lightning. Slowly, they all backed away. As they reached the door, Hammah thought of something.

“Do you know the city?” Hammah asked the creature. “Can you lead us around?” The creature glared at him. 

“Our feeding ground. Not yours!” It shrieked. It waved the maul in what it thought was a threatening gesture.

“We don’t want to steal your food.” Ianthe grunted, still holding her stomach. She turned to the others. “We don’t need him. Lets just leave and find somewhere else to stay.” 

“Ianthe, think.” Hammah hissed at her. “If they hunt here, they know the dangers, and where the cultists may be. That will get us there quicker.” He glared up at the taller woman. She met his gaze for a moment, before her eyes dropped to the side. She waved one hand to say: go for it. Hammah turned back to the creature. “We have some food. If you can lead us where we want to go, we can give you the food.”

The creature perked up at the mention of food. Its nose twitched, taking a step forwards, trying to determine if what the one-armed man said was true. Al pulled out some of the dried meat from his bag. The creature’s eyes went wide as it smelled the bounty of food. “You give us more food, we show you what you want.” 

“We need you to take us to where the Closed Mouth cult lives.” Ianthe stepped between the creature and the food. It creamed in frustration at her.

“You lie! No give us food. Cannot go there!” The creature hissed and slammed the maul into a rickety shelf, crushing it into splinters. 

“Easy.” Ianthe cocked the pistol. The sound caused the creature to pause. “You don’t need to go into the territory. Just get us there.” The creature looked at her and the pistol in her hand, then back at the food. 

“Fine. Show you where to go. Leave food here.” It moved forwards carefully. 

“Half now, half when we get there. You’ll be able to carry it back.” Al placed the food down. “I’ve got more in here, so don’t worry.” He pulled out more meat to show the creature. “By the way, what do we call you?”

“Pree.” It grabbed the food on the ground and curried back to its lair. They all exchanged glances as they heard multiple voices. Pree came back, the food no longer in their arms. 

“Come. Go now.” He scuttled off. 

“Wait…Don’t we want to get some sleep? Hammah needs to recover.” Penny asked, shifting between sore feet. 

“We can rest when we get there, scope the area out.” Hammah rested on his spear. “Here, let me help you.” He concentrated as he form melted away and reformed into a large hyena. Penny and Ianthe both shook, neither having gotten used to the way Hammah’s form shifted. It turned so Penny could hop on his back. Hesitantly, Penny flicked the safety and stowed the shotgun on her back before climbing onto the large hyena. It gave a chuckle and took off after Pree, the characteristic hyena cackle echoing in the empty distance. Al rocketed off after them, adding his own cackle to the mixture. Charkassus, still in the air, merely lazily banked and soared through the sky. Dokami melted into the ground. Ianthe had no doubt Dokami could easily keep up.

“Come on, only a few more miles.” Ianthe groaned, taking to the sky to keep up with the rest. 

The sun set and the moon reached the top of the sky by the time they finally stopped. They had crossed the distance between the hamlet and the main city an hour beforehand. Now they were threading their ways through the ruins, the large buildings closing in on them. 

“Only little farther.” Pree whispered. His little farther turned to be another half hour of wandering through the ruins till they came to a five-story brick building that was still partially intact. “No further. They live two buildings that way.” He pointed further into the rubble. “Food now. On your own.” Al pulled out more of the meat and handed it over. Pree squealed with delight and scurried off, the sound of his talons fading into the distance. 

“Let’s get inside and get some sleep.” Ianthe rubbed her wing joints. She hadn’t flown for that long in, well, she had never flown that long.

“We’ll take watch tonight.” All motioned to himself, Charkassus, and Dokami. “You guys get some sleep.” Too tired to argue, the teens entered into the building, climbing to the fourth floor and practically falling into their sleeping bags. Penny crawled into Hammah’s, curling into his body like she was trying to burrow closer. Ianthe bit down a flare of envy as she watched them cuddle to sleep. 

AL only waited a few minutes after they fell asleep before he turned to the others. “You two keep watch. I’m going to scout ahead.” Floating out of the building and to street level, Al continued along to where Pree had told them the cultists were. 

He was relieved the cultists didn’t find a reason to cover their tracks. Their symbols were everywhere. A memory from long ago, well before he had been sacrificed started surfacing. Shaking himself, Al focused on the task at hand and continued towards the center of the symbols. There were flames burning in metal drums and containers lighting the courtyard before the entrance to the lair. A large sign hung over the stairs and ramshackle structure. Al chuckled; they had chosen a subway station as their headquarters. Looking closely, he noticed an additional symbol on the subway sign. He couldn’t remember what it meant, only that it meant they were going to have a hard time breaking in without being noticed. 

Floating around, he trained his clear gemstone eye everywhere, looking for any illusions. He found nothing around that seemed to be hidden by illusion. “Why did I even trade my eye?” He muttered sourly. After a search lasting two hours, he gave up on finding a back door and settled to watch their activities. 

The night passed slowly, with no movement visible. Al started wishing he could fall asleep to alleviate the boredom. When day came, there was no additional movement. No guards, no parties heading in or out. After another few hours, Al felt a ringing in his head. 

Ianthe’s voice buzzed in his head. “Al, where in the hells are you? What if something happened to us?”

He rolled his eyes. “Dokami and Charkassus were both on watch. Besides, I figured we needed some information. Not that anything has happened in the past whoever knows hours.”

“Then what are you still doing there? You need to save me.” The last part came whispered. “I’m sure they thought I was asleep, but I think Hammah and Penny…Worked. It. Out. last night, if you know what I mean.” 

“You biological creatures are so disgusting.” Al shuddered. “Please tell me you don’t care to do that.” There was a long pause. Unseen by Al, Ianthe was blushing as an image of Ree from the club passed in front of her vision. 

“I…I have more important things on my mind.” Ianthe lied. “Just get back here and let us know what you found.”

The call ended and Al floated back, careful to make sure that nothing had changed since he had first come this way. When he arrived back, he saw that Penny was sitting in Hammah’s lap, cheeks flushed and radiating as she tried to keep her smile as small as possible. Hammah wasn’t doing anything to hide his smile. Ianthe was standing next to a window, the expression on her face an exact negative of the happiness on her friend’s faces. Her tail swished with clear agitation. 

“Ianthe, we’re sorry…we just got to talking, and we got carried away.” Penny took another bite of her oatcake. 

“Oh really? You got carried away three times?” She turned towards them, eyes wide. “I barely got any sleep because druid boy here can’t help but grow wood.” 

“Hey, don’t blame him!” Penny smiled wickedly. “I’m just too pretty. And you’re only jealous because you have an unrequited crush and I have a loving boyfriend.”

Ianthe grumbled as she came over and sat down. “Rub it in more. See what happens.” Though she was glaring at Penny, there was the slightest hint of a smile on her fiendish face. 

“Who’s the crush?” Hammah asked. He leaned in and took a bite of Penny’s oatcake. “You’ve never mentioned them before.”

“Good luck. Not even Zeena has been able to get that information over the past half year.” Penny answered him. “How about we promise to never do that again in front of you, and you tell us who your crush is?”

“No thank you.” Ianthe replied curtly. “I’d rather keep it secret. It’s…embarrassing.” She started wolfing down a few of the cakes. Once they finished eating, they quickly packed up. “Al, did you notice anything?”

“Nothing really. One entrance; couldn’t find a second entrance. No one really around watching. They seem to be overly confident that no one will attack them.” Al relayed the information. 

“Why don’t we just go in the front door then?” Hammah asked. “If there is no other entrance, and they aren’t caring to guard it, then why not just walk in?” They all exchanged glances. 

“Let’s take another look…just to see if we can come up with a better plan.” Ianthe rubbed her eyes and ran her fingers through her hair. “I’d rather not just walk in the front door, but if they’ve left it open…”

Half an hour later they found themselves standing in front of the doors leading into the sanctum. No one had come to greet or challenge them. Penny had gone over every inch of the doorway and couldn’t find any traps. The door was even unlocked. 

“I’m betting this is a trap.” Al said, looking at the doorway.

“But…there are no traps…” Penny muttered, touching the door. 

“Come on, do you really think they know we’re coming?” Ianthe scoffed. “You saw Pree. He was completely terrified by the cultists, and he was willing to attack us while heavily outnumbered at the drop of a hat. They’re probably overconfident.” Al wanted to argue, but he had nothing but a feeling that something was wrong. He watched as Ianthe grabbed the handle and pulled, the muscles in her legs and all four arms bulging as they moved the heavy metal door. 

The hallway inside was large enough for Ianthe to spread her wings without touching the walls. After a few paces, the hall turned into a stairwell. There was a string of lights in one of the upper corners, giving a pale-yellow radiance to the passageway. The floor and the walls were both covered in layers of grime and detritus deposited through the decades of misuse. The only noise came from the wind entering from the open door and the footfalls of the party.

“Ok, now I’m getting nervous.” Ianthe pulled out her scimitars and pistol. They descended the stairs, moving down at least one hundred feet before they came to a large railway platform. There were more symbols around them, but still no sign of anyone. The platform was covered in the same ancient garbage as the stairs. On the far end of the platform was a large metal door, salvaged from another building. Two train rails flanked the platform, going off into darkness in either direction.

Penny shown her flashlight down the dark railways. By the time the light disappeared, they could see the outlines of a few of the stalagmite creatures they had fought in the desert. “I’m really glad we went back to the surface.” 

Ianthe fluttered over to the door. It was made of thin sheet metal, rickety and poorly patched. Candles placed all around provided the only light for the door. “Guys…are we sure this is the right place? I’d have expected for more people to be here.” Her wings snapped open as the metal door behind her creaked open. Jumping into a short glide, she whirled around, pistol leveled at the door. 

Standing in the doorway was an elf with dark, dusky skin and a shaved head. He was wearing a patched, black robe and no sign of weapons. There was no surprise in his eyes, and even more disconcerting, a smile. None of the other cultists had a mouth left, yet here was someone who still had one.

“Welcome.” His voice was pleasant, almost untouched by the cares of the world. “We have been expecting you.” Immediately, everyone looked around, expecting other cultists to pop out of the woodwork. When no one appeared, they all looked back at the lone cultist. He chuckled. “No, we will not ambush you. We have no reason to.”

“Where is Zeena?” Ianthe growled, her confidence coming back as she realized there were no other cultists around. “Give her back and we promise to be kind.” She bared her fangs, giving her most unsettling smile at the man. He chuckled. 

“No need for threats. Follow me.” He turned and walked back into the passageway.

“Ianthe…be careful. There is something very wrong here.” Al’s voice was thin. Ianthe looked over at him. Was he afraid? He had never been afraid of everything before.

“Didn’t you say the fiend was betraying its ordered by saying where they were?” Penny held Amber close to her chest, ready to deploy the automaton if anything happened. 

“You’re right, but what else can we do?” Ianthe strode forwards, her companions reluctantly following her. Charkassus came last, whining slightly as they went further underground. They let out a screech of fear as the rickety door slammed shut behind them and the door disappeared, forming a solid wall. Ianthe turned to face the cultist. “What game are you playing at?” She pressed one of her blades against his chest. 

He looked down at the blade and pushed it away with one finger. “No games. But you will really want to see what we have been preparing before you ask your questions. Your friend is waiting for you.” He walked away, ignoring the weapons that were pointing at him. 

Ianthe marched off after him, grunting with each step in her frustration at the cultist. Why couldn’t they just have been fanatics who wanted to fight? She would have felt better than this welcoming attitude. The man led them through dimly lit corridors for a few minutes before coming into a large stadium-like basement, over two hundred yards long and sixty yards wide. 

“Den Mother…” Hammah muttered in amazement. Cultists covered the room, thick as locusts. They were on benches, all sitting and watching someone proselytize from the raised dais and altar on the far side of the room. Unlike most crowds of this size, even when they were listening with rapt attention still had an underlying susurrus of conversation, this crowd was deathly silent.

“Your friend is up on the altar. Come, I will take you to her.” The cultist turned to the rest of the party. “Sorry, this is an invitation for one only. You all will need to stay here.”

“They come or I don’t.” Ianthe snarled. The man turned back to the altar.

“It looks like we are coming to the sacrificial moment. It doesn’t always happen, but who knows…he may sacrifice…Zeena, was it?” His tone was casually conversational. Ianthe looked back at her friends. This was her one chance to get close to Zeena with ease. 

“Excuse me, do you have anywhere I can go relive myself?” Hammah asked suddenly. The cultist pointed down a hallway. Hammah quickly ran off down the hallway. 

Ianthe shook her head. She had no idea what came over Hammah, but she had to focus on Zeena now. “Fine, take me to her. But any funny business and my friends will avenge me.” The man seemed unconcerned by her threat, merely nodded and leading her down one of the pathways to the altar. 

Halfway to the altar, Ianthe heard a buzzing near her ear. She waved a hand at the insect. It dodged, but rather than flying away, was still flying at her. She was about to brush it off when it landed, when the fly held to arms up and waved them. It started moving from side to side, arms bouncing along with the movements. It took Ianthe a moment to realize it was dancing. Her eyes widened as she remembered that Hammah could transform into most small animals. Maybe he was the fly. She smiled, speeding up to get to the altar faster. 

The man on the altar has stopped speaking, and all eyes were on the tall fiendish woman as she vaulted onto the dais. A smile cracked across his face. “And so, she has come, as foretold. We are honored by your presence here, gifted one.” His voice was a pleasant alto, welcoming and friendly. 

“Give me my friend back.” She looked down at Zeena. She was still in the same clothing she had been kidnapped in, albeit well soiled and worn. She didn’t look injured, just slightly malnourished and drugged. 

“Ianthe…Is that you?” Zeena giggled from where she was laying on the altar. She started to reach her hands up to her friend, but then giggled harder and laid back down, spread eagle. “Sorry, I was told to lay like this. It’s a game to see how long I can do this!” Ianthe bent in and looked at Zeena’s eyes. Both were pinpricks of black in pools of golden brilliance. 

Ianthe chocked down a sob. “What did you do to her?” Ianthe forced the words out, her voice nearly breaking. The fly jumped from her to Zeena’s chest. 

“Merely reduced her suffering for a little while. We all need a break from the rigors of the world.” The preacher’s words dripped like honey. She could feel magic trying to befuddle her mind, but her fiendish and elven blood rejected the magical energies. 

“She’s coming with me now.” Ianthe reached down with all four arms and found she was unable to lift Zeena. Something prevented her from gripping her prostrate friend. 

“If only she could.” The man affected a sorrowful expression. “But you see, someone needs to lay on this altar until the service has ended. Unfortunately, the only way to release her is for someone who is willing to replace her as the sacrifice to take her spot.”

“Then why don’t one of your followers do it?” Ianthe felt her temper beginning to fray. She was moments away from shooting the man with her pistol. 

“Because, none of us care enough about saving her to take her spot, especially since we are not a cult of martyrs.” The man placed a hand on Zeena’s shoulder, giving it a fatherly squeeze. “You, however, are her best friend. You could even say you are one of the few who hold her heart. And from what she has told me, you two are the best of friends. Who better to rescue her? Isn’t that what being a noble adventurer is about? Sacrificing yourself for the good of others?”

“And what if I just killed you now and walked out of here with her.” The man laughed and gestured around him. 

“I am not so important that they will fall and quail before you. They will merely kill you and another will take my place.” Ianthe’s shoulders slumped. She wished Ree was here to help with the magic.   
“Fine…I’ll take her place.” Ianthe moved to get onto the altar. 

“Perfect.” The preacher chuckled as he pulled Zeena off the altar. With a wave of his hand, Zeena disappeared and reappeared next to the rest of the party, where Al caught her immediately. Ianthe felt herself compelled to lay on the altar, legs, arms, and wings spread. “Now, stay there. Once you have been sacrificed, your friends will be free to go.” 

He stood before her, both hands on a dagger he produced from his robes. “I’m amazed this plan actually worked. We were certain the fiend would foul it up, but this was perfect.” 

“And why did you want me?” She asked, eyeing the dagger. A Sense of calm suffused her. There was nothing she could do, but at least she had saved her friend. The same magic that held Zeena down was not around her. They obviously believed her concern for her friends was enough to keep her still.

“Because, you are the crux. You are the demon child of Those who Destroyed and Those who Renewed. It is with your blood and your body that our voice will enter this world. You will ascend from this mortal form and become out new god.” 

Across the hall, Al was still supporting Zeena as Penny forced a paste into her mouth and forced her to swallow it. Slowly, her pupils expanded till they were normal size. 

The blade arced down, turning into a silver blur as it aimed for Ianthe’s heart. She closed her eyes, sending a swift prayer to watch over her brothers, parents, and friends.


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> SMUT Chapter. This one happens during the night they are resting in the previous chapter.

Hammah eased himself onto the bedroll Penny had laid out. Penny was nervous about helping him, not sure if he would want to try and do it himself. To cover her indecision, she started stacking their equipment to give them a little privacy. She wasn’t sure why she was doing this. They hadn’t done anything yet in their relationship other than kiss, and had only napped together a few times. 

She blushed when Hammah looked around and commented that she had put both of their sleeping bags together. “I was thinking it might help ease our minds…you know, the physical contact.” Her voice started squeaking. They hadn’t been physically intimate since she had come out to him, even though he said he was ok with it. 

“That’s a great idea.” Hammah smiled. “Come here, let’s eat.” He brought out some of the food he had been trying to prepare. Penny shuffled forwards and dropped onto his lap. They both let out a gasp of surprise. Hammah because he wasn’t prepared for his small, elven girlfriend to drop onto his lap, and Penny because she wasn’t expecting to land on his other spear. Penny’s back went just as rigid and she froze, barely daring to breath.

“What’s wrong?” His voice was gentle, soft enough to not be overheard. 

“Nothing!” Penny was a little louder and squeaker than she intended, her concentration on the stiff rod pressing into her rear. “I just…I wasn’t…I know you said you were ok, I just wasn’t really thinking you would be this ok with it.”

Hammah smiled, the hints of a chuckle escaping his throat. “I can see that. But trust me.” He leaned in, lips meeting hers for a moment. “I am very ok with this.” He shifted so his one hand could run along her thigh, moving up the long skirt she was wearing. Penny shivered as he touched her skin. 

His hand stopped before it went higher than two inches above her knee. “Would you be ok with more?” Penny asked, grabbing his hand and slowly moving it farther up her thigh. His mouth moved back up to hers. This time it stayed. Penny melted against him, his plump lips gently pressing against hers. She brought his hand up to her ass, leaving it just at the panty-line. She moved her hands to his head, pressing his lips against hers. 

There was a sudden shift of position as Hammah nearly fell backwards. Penny thrust her legs out, straddling Hammah to give him some balance. Hammah’s hand was still resting against her ass, only a thin layer material between their skin. “Grab it.” She muttered into his mouth as they continued to kiss. She could feel herself growing hard, trying to ignore that and focus on him. His hand reflexively squeezed her ass, drawing a needful moan from her throat. 

That noise was all it took to get Hammah into the moment, his hand started flitting around her body, unsure what to do and with too much to explore at once. Finally, his hand decided to try and slip down the front of her panties. He knew he enjoyed playing with his dick, and thought he might be able to help her that way. 

Penny grabbed his hand just as it pulled the panties open. “Please, don’t. Just ignore there is anything there…at least for now.” She leaned up, pressing one of her small breasts against his face. She moved his one hand around to her ass again. She pressed his middle finger against her tight anus, gently running a circle around it until he started moving his hand on his own. “There…” She pulled her dress off, revealing the white panties and small, perky breasts.

“No bra?” Hammah asked. 

“Built into the dress.” Penny answered, pressing one puffy nipple into Hammah’s mouth. An almost silent gasp escaped her mouth as Hammah suckled on her nipple, his teeth gently running along the tender flesh. The gasp became audible as his middle-finger penetrated beyond the ring of muscle, opening her to him. The gasp continued, turning into a high pitched moan as the digit slowly plumbed her depths, changing tenor for a moment as each of his knuckles passed the tight ring. 

Her body shuddered and she felt the front of her panties become drenched as he curled his finger, pulling an orgasm from her tiny body. Hammah took a deep breath, smelling her fluids and pheromones. His ache was almost too much to contain. She pulled Penny down to him and started rubbing her softening shaft against his painfully erect one through the intervening layers of clothing. 

As she came down from her orgasm, she could feel his cock rubbing her and gave him a wicked smile. Her hands fumbled at his pants, opening them and pulling out the warm meat of his cock. She had never seen one other than her own, and she could barely believe she was holding one, with the express intent of putting it in her. Her eyes fixated on it for a long time before she leaned in, sniffing the musk aroma. Her eyes rolled in her head and she licked the head gently, shuddering in pleasure at the flavor. 

“Are you always this musky and tasty?” Penny asked, embarrassed about her own forwardness. 

“I…I don’t know. I’ve never thought about it.” She gasped as she licked the head again. “Wait, how do you mean?”

Penny wrapped her lips around the head and started sucking, running her tongue all over the head to get the musky flavor. “Well, you do change shape.” She started sucking again, grabbing the shaft with one hand and sending the other under his ass. Middle finger questing, she found his puckered hole and pressed her slim finger in. She felt him buck at the sensation and grow at least another inch from the extra stimulation. Rather than tell her to stop, he merely started working in a second finger. Saliva leaked from her mouth as the musk sent her into overdrive. 

Finally, she pulled off of him, looking at her spit shine job. Gingerly, she pulled his fingers out of her and pushed him onto his back. “I want to control this.” She positioned herself above him, his cock in one hand and the other pulling the back of her panties to the side. Slowly, she descended towards his cock. Her heart was hammering in her chest as she felt his head press her cheeks apart and come to rest on her warmed up puckered hole. She gave Hammah a nervous smile and was happy to see it mirrored on his face. She pressed down, eyes rolling back in her head as she felt her ring of muscle being stretched further than with just the two fingers. 

“Hammah! Hammah!” Penny’s breath was coming in staccato gasps, her whole body vibrating with the overwhelming sensation of his penetration. Hammah wrapped his one arm around Penny, his hand grabbing her ass. Slowly, he started thrusting, keeping the withdrawals short to not injure her. Inch after inch slowly made its way into her rear till she was seated directly on his hips, body shaking with overwhelming sensation. 

Removing his hand from her ass, Hammah gently pulled on her nipples, smiling every time her body was wracked with a massive spasm. He continued to bounce his hips as Penny was in no stay to take control of anything. Her hands were planted on his chest, holding on for dear life. Her mouth was hanging open, throat working as she gasped for air. Her eyes had rolled back in her head. She was totally focused on the pleasure of being filled. 

Hammah could feel himself getting close, but he didn’t want this to end. Pulling her close, he rolled over so Penny was laying on her back and he was on his knees, her ass still connected to him. Bending her over, he hooked Penny’s legs around his neck. Slowly, he started to build up his rhythm again, daring to move more each time until there was enough room for their flesh to clap together when he pushed forwards. He could feel his orgasm approaching, a knot forming in his abdomen as his legs started to twitch.

Penny’s arms wrapped around Hammah, pulling him closer to her. She kissed him deeply, still barely aware of her surroundings as her body was focused almost solely on the penetration in her ass. Her voice, an octave higher than normal, gasped into Hammah’s ear. “Make me yours. Please.” 

Hammah felt the knot in his abdomen fall apart as his orgasm washed over him. He bucked, his seed spraying deep into Penny. He gave a snarling howl as he buried himself as deep as he could in Penny. She replied with her own howl of pleasure as the rush of his warm sperm in her ass sent her over the edge into another orgasm, more powerful than any she had every experienced. Her fluid rocketed from her untouched cock, spraying against the cloth of her panties and covering her groin. 

Minutes passed as they stayed in this position. Finally, Hammah’s cock softened and slipped out of her ass. Both of them sighed in pleasure and laid down to cuddle, Penny keeping her ass pressed against Hammah’s groin. 

“If you feel the need to later in the night, I’m up for another round.” Penny breathed out, barely conscious. She turned and smile at Hammah, her eyes barely focusing. 

“We need to be rested for tomorrow…but that’s good to know.” He leaned in and kissed her, lazily running a finger around her nipple. 

Penny broke the kiss after a few minutes. “Can I ask you something and you not get upset with me?” 

“Go for it. I promise I won’t be mad.” He kissed her again. 

Penny looked around, making sure no one else could hear her. She leaned in and whispered to Hammah. “Next time would you mind a different shape? Like one of the beasts?” Hammah chuckled.  
“My my, a little adventurous, aren’t we?” He tweaked her nipple. Leaning in to whisper in her ear, “Have any requests for your first new shape?” Penny shuddered at the words, heart thundering with excitement.


	16. Chapter 16

Ianthe waited for the dagger to plunge into her. She expected it to hurt. What she wasn’t expecting was to be crushed under a bear’s belly. Her arms flailed as she attempted to shove the bear off of her. With a deafening roar, the bear surged off her and slammed into the two cultists beside the altar. Ianthe got to her feet and looked around, confused. 

Near the entrance, an ear-splitting roar shattered the silence more thoroughly than even the bear’s had. Charkassus, wings spread, sent out a bolt of electric energy, frying nearly a score of cultist who were trying to overwhelm her friends. Dokami was a whirling dervish of limbs, solid arms and claws slamming into the unarmored cultists and sending them tumbling. Penny and Amber were standing next to Charkassus, firing with wild abandon, unable to miss with any of their shots. She could not see Al, but she could hear his cackling. There were cultists randomly dying or being flung in the air, which she could only take as the skull going wild and biting them to death.

In front of her, a large bruin with a dagger sticking out from it was laying about in the horde of cultists, all of whom were armed with daggers or makeshift clubs. They were being tossed by the Ursin’s rage, but as one died, another two filled its place. Turning around, she saw that the two leaders were no where in sight. They seemed to have fled when Hammah went from a fly to a bear. She saw a doorway behind the dais. Looking back, she realized she had two options. An Ursin roar made her decisions for her. 

Wings spread, Ianthe swooped into combat, her pistol spitting beams of ivory energy. Landing amidst swirling blades, she flicked her scimitars out, the left sinking deeply into a cultists chest while the other ripped a throat open. Lightning filled her free hand. A cultist ran at her, a heavy metal pipe held aloft in both hands. Lunging forwards, Ianthe thrust her crackling hand into the man’s face, frying his brain with a few thousand volts. 

Ducking a blow from a long char leg, she spun, her tail slapping the arm away as the point of a scimitar arced up below the sternum. Ianthe pushed forwards, using the pinned body as a shield. Lances of energy erupted from the pistol and her free hand, carving through cloth, flesh, and bone. With a yell, Ianthe tossed the body off her blade, sending it crashing into three others. 

A heavy club slammed into her lower elbow, numbing the arm. It dropped limply beside her body as another crashed into one of her horns. Disoriented, Ianthe stumbled and toppled to the ground. Blows rained down on her as she tried to bring her blades up to block them. Most of the clubs and knives missed, the wielders trying to avoid the flailing limbs of the downed demoness, but a few snuck through. A bat slammed into one hand, forcing her to drop her spent pistol. A club with spikes of metal forced through it raked her abdomen, cutting up the leather breastplate and scoring thin cuts across her purple skin. A wrenched slammed into one of her horns slamming her head on the ground. 

Ianthe’s vision greyed and burst into a cloud of stars. Her limbs felt like lead, falling to the ground in a boneless heap. All sound was gone, replaced by a high-pitched ringing in her ears. She could see dozens of clubs and daggers raising for the final plunge. In the moment as the weapons descended, an image of her younger brothers swam into her mind. Seeing them play with Al out in the garden while her parents watched, sitting on the loveseat on the porch. Her aunts, the black furred foxfolk Zilvra and the pale skinned elf Adria, were sitting near them on a bench, watching their litter race between the fence posts.

She smiled, warmed by the memory of her family. As she turned to the side, she saw Dokami and Charkassus playing a game of chess while Zeena, Hammah, and Penny cheered them on, pompoms in hand. Turning to the other side, she saw Ree standing next to her. “Ready to introduce me?” Apparently, her mind was not satisfied with a memory, but wanted to make her crazy too. 

The high-pitched whine grew in intensity. Her cousins started clucking like chickens while her siblings changed shade and shape. Her mind was turning the image into a carnival of oddities. The whine ended and turned into a whip-crack so loud Ianthe’s body shivered. Her vision cleared as a beam of pure light passed over her, killing all the cultists it touched. A soul-shattering roar ripped the air, the sorrow and rage clear to anyone who had spent time around Charkassus. 

The young dragon loped into Ianthe’s view, claws, wings, and jaws snapping at all who came near. They left a trail of carnage behind them, body parts strewn across the floor. The blast of a shotgun and the quieter whip-crack of Amber came closer. The laughter grew manic as Al continued to eat his way through the cultist horde. 

“Hold on!” Hammah’s shout, a mere whisper heard at the back of her mind, brought Ianthe’s head around. Gone was the bear form, and in its place was the one-armed man, tomahawk flashing ins devastating arcs as he cut his way to try and reach Ianthe. Even with her mind befuddled by the massive amount of damage she seemed to have taken, Ianthe knew she would be unconscious by the time he got to her. 

A ululating scream cut through the fog of her mind. A blur passed her, crashing into the mass of cultists keeping Hammah from reaching her. The skirts of the gothic styled dress, torn and ruined from days in captivity, fluttered about the wearer as she parted her foes like a plow. She held a long section of broken pipe in a two-handed grip, each blow caving in a chest or skull. Her screaming mouth, not only releasing a cry that gave pause even to the fanatical zealots, showed her elongated fangs in a terrifying snarl. 

The sudden entrance of Zeena into the fight gave Hammah the room to sprint from combat to Ianthe’s side. Energy in the form of vines erupted from Hammah’s hand, weaving together Ianthe’s bleeding stomach and easing her concussion. The world snapped into perfect clarity as the pain receded.

“Can you still fight?” Hammah asked, his axe arcing up to split open the jaw of another cultist.

“I think so.” Ianthe connected all of her hands in a long fan, a wave of fire issuing from her fingers into the remaining horde of robed filters. “I guess that answers that.” Taking Hammah’s hand, they both stood to face the rest of the horde. Looking around, they realized the combat was over. Charkassus was still near them, madding through dismembered bodies. Dokami was standing protectively over Penny, who was fussing over a smashed Amber. Zeena and Al were standing atop a hill of dead bodies, the metal pole in her hands bent and cracked. 

Zeena’s breath bellowed in and out of her lungs, adrenaline pumping through her veins. She turned as she heard Ianthe’s blades scrape against the ground, pipe arcing upwards. When Zeena saw it was Ianthe, she let out a cry of joy and rushed to her friend, bent pipe tossed aside. Ianthe was pitched off her feet as the svelte vampire slammed into her. 

“You came! I had almost lost hope.” Zeena shook as tears tried to burst from her eyes. 

“I could never leave you.” Ianthe squeezed her friend with all four of her arms, weapons and injuries forgotten. Keeping the mass of curls pressed to her chest, Ianthe looked over the rest of her friends. Hammah was currently checking on their wounds, a spectral elk beside him. As it stepped through Penny, Ianthe saw the cuts and bruises start to disappear. Once she was whole, Hammah brought the elk over to Zeena and Ianthe. 

They both gasped as the elk walked over them, their injuries disappearing. Zeena still seemed to be lightheaded and malnourished. Ianthe kept seeing her glance at the bodies and blood around them. She tapped Zeena’s hand forcefully as the vampire reached for one of the closest cultists. “No, take some from me.”

“Let her take from one of them.” Al landed in their laps, cracks covering the skull. “She’ll drain you too much. We need to keep moving and get the cult leaders.”

“He is right.” She reached again for one of the dead cultists. 

“But this’ll be your first time…you know.” Ianthe was flabbergasted that Zeena wasn’t saving her first bite.

“Well, it is a dead body so if I miss at first, or move the wrong way, I cannot hurt you.” Zeena shifted off Ianthe and grabbed the corpse, draining what blood she could from the veins. She sucked on three more bodies before giving up. “I am so hungry. Can I please suck the next one we meet before we kill them?” She pleaded.

Ianthe stood again and looked at her friends. They were exhausted and shaken. She looked back to the exit she knew the leaders had taken. “Fine. We’re taking no prisoners anyways.” She stalked off towards the door, her companions falling in behind her. The passageway was unlocked, and after a quick examination, untrapped. It wound through the complex, small windows letting them see other rooms. Most of these the party moved past without taking the time to examine. There we no exits, so these rooms didn’t hold any importance for them. All that mattered was what was at the end of the passageway. 

Al floated near Zeena, pulling a large hammer from within his bag. “Here, might be better than that chunk of wood.” Zeena grinned, feeling the weight of the maul.

The door to the far room was open and a pair of voices wafted from the room. “You can still make up for your failure.” The deep voice boomed. Ianthe stiffened momentarily. She remembered this voice, the voice of the fiend that had captured Zeena. 

“We will rebuild and complete the ritual without her. It can be done with another.” The evangelizing priest replied. 

“Yes, but to use her would mean my master can fully materialize.” The fiend replied. It turned to the door. “Come on out and we can all talk about this.” They all froze. “Don’t make this harder than it needs to be. We only want the little fiend child. The rest of you are free to go home.”

“Over my dead body.” Al growled, floating outwards. The fiend chuckled deeply at Al’s choice of words. 

“Still just as stupid I see, little skull.” The fiend chuckled. 

“And you’re still as ugly.” Al replied, exiting the passageway. The rest of the group exited after him, feeling there was no need to hide anymore. The room was fairly large, with a cavernous ceiling. There was a large bed and set of dressers in one corner of the room, while the other was dedicated to a large portal that seemed inactive. The two cultists and the fiend were standing near the portal, clearly at ease and watching the passageway. One of the cultists had a revolver in one hand, with a sparking saber in the other. The evangelist was holding a cat-o-nine-tails and metal rod. The fiend was holding a massive pole-arm, acidic liquid falling from the blade and sizzling when it hit the ground. 

Ianthe stood next to Al, trying to be as defiant as her uncle. “Why do you need me? And if you needed me, why the hell did you kidnap Zeena.” She pointed the pistol at the fiend. 

“We need you to willingly sacrifice yourself for our master to come here.” The Evangelical one replied. “But now, you have no reason to sacrifice yourself. An unwilling sacrifice will work, just not as well.” A green beam erupted from the end of the metal baton towards Ianthe. Diving to the side, Ianthe rolled back to her feet, pistol in a two-handed grip as she started firing, bolts of white light counterpointing the dark green. The wall behind Ianthe sizzled and boiled away as the acid of the beam ate through it. 

The bright stabs from her pistol slammed into the cultist’s chest, burning through the cloth. He didn’t seem discomforted by the shots. The fiend crashed forwards, bringing the large pole-arm down to try and cleave Al in two. The small skull dodged, flinging himself forwards to bite onto the fiend, looking like a small terrier grabbing onto a massive bear. Dokami and Charkassus followed suit, engaging the massive fiend while their small companions took on the cultists. There was a loud shriek as the revolver erupted. Penny was laying on the ground, Amber fanning out to provide cover for its master. She was currently holding her arm, blood flowing freely from a pair of bullet holes. 

Hammah rushed over to care for her arm as Zeena rushed forwards, large hammer cutting massive arcs through the air as she charged the man. The man dodged out of the way, blade flicking out in response. The blade missed Zeena by a few inches, but the electric field cut through her skin, making another cut on her smooth alabaster skin. Reversing her grip, Zeena pulled the massive hammer in a backhanded swing. The weapon hummed through the air, carving towards the bladed opponent. Again, the man skipped back, chuckling as Zeena screamed in rage. 

Ianthe, not wanting to have to dodge another of those beams of acid, rushed the Evangelical cultist. Her blades carved forwards, coming together at his neck. The man raised the baton, catching both blades. He lashed out with the nine tails, hitting Ianthe in her side. Each of the straps was covered in small nails and barbs, grabbing onto her clothing and armor, shredding it further as he pulled it away. Breaking away, the pair started circling warily. Bolts of acid arced from the baton as the man waved it, only to be countered by crescents of thunderous energy from Ianthe’s blades. The bolts were coming too fast for Ianthe to focus with her pistol or on a spell more than reactionary. 

A loud shriek tore the air as Charkassus was stabbed in the chest by the massive polearm. The fiend pulled the blade from the dragon, and, with a reverse stroke, slammed the spike into Dokami, nearly splitting them in two. The fiend laughed as Al was still ripping flesh from its form, oblivious to the damage the skull was causing. Ianthe felt sharp pain all along her left side as the nine tails slapped into her ruined armor and pulled at the flesh, shredding her side with dozens of spikes and barbs. 

Fire raged through her side as she realized the barbs were covered in poison. She staggered, trying to get out of range of the nine tails. The cultist kept after her, the tails whistling as they sliced through the air. Twice more, the barbs bit into her arms, flooding her system with more poison. Ianthe tried to summon her magic. She needed to push him away quickly. The words and motions wouldn’t come to her through the fog in her mind. Her pistol hissed again, and the beam hit his chest to no effect. 

The man swung the baton at her, the weighted tip angled at her chin. Sluggishly, her arms moved to bring her swords in the way. The baton bounced off the curved blade, cracking on one of her horns rather than jaw, sending shards of horn flying. As the man raised the nine tails for another swipe, a click-boom rocked their part of the battlefield. The man lunged forwards, sending sprays of blood rather than cords of barbs. The man looked at his ruined arm, a scream coming from his throat, covering the click half of the second click-boom as Penny re-racked the shotgun and fired point blank into the man’s head, sending gobbets of flesh, bone, and brain scattering amidst a rain of blood. 

Zeena screamed again, her hammer singing again as she tried to slice through the air to land a blow. The blade wielder easily side stepped the massive hammer. No matter how hard Zeena swung, he dodged each attack. His pistol had been discarded; the few shots spent. Every time Zeena missed, he flicked his blade at her, the electric field ripped more of her clothing and burnt her skin. The man smiled as more of Zeena’s skin was laid bare. “Maybe you should just give up before I ruin all of that perfect skin.”

“I will destroy each of your limbs, one by one, till all that remains is a pitiful scrap of flesh.” She screamed, swinging the hammer again. The man ducked forwards, brining the tip of his blade towards her chest. Before the blade pierced her flesh, a heavy weight crashed into the swordsman. Taken off-guard, the man toppled and rolled away. Hammah staggered, trying to keep his balance with one arm.  
“Thanks.” Zeena forced out. “He is a fencer. We need to keep him off line.” 

“Sounds good.” Hammah moved to the side, trying to make sure he was always at an oblique to Zeena. The swordsman continued his guarded stance, dodging and blocking the swings from both of them. Every time Hammah’s tomahawk was blocked, the electrical field cut chips from the blade or handle. Zeena’s strikes were still too slow to hit him. 

“I do not think this is working.” Zeena grumbled, cuts and burns crossing all over her arms and chest. Most of the clothing on her arms and torso were gone, as if their opponent was doing this on purpose. “He is only teasing us.”

“Just like you tease everyone else.” The man spat at Zeena. “I’ve seen how you flaunt yourself, tossing yourself at anyone and everyone.” Zeena’s hammer dropped slightly in her hands, a look of utter confusion crawling onto her face.

“I do not tease anyone. I do not even give the impression! Yes, I am affectionate with my friends and I am bubbly, but I have never teased anyone.” She swung again, slamming the ground as the man dodged. Rather than pull back with the hammer, Zeena followed through, pirouetting to build momentum, letting go of the hammer as she faced her assailant again. The maul fly from her hands, slamming into the man’s chest with bone-cracking force. 

The man fell to the ground, hammer resting on his chest. His limbs spasmed feebly. Zeena walked over and glared down at him. “I was thinking of sucking the blood of the first person I was to kill, but I will not even give you what you want; the touch of my skin. You are nothing but a creep…and now, not even that.” She grabbed the maul from where it lay, and with one quick rotation, brought it down on his head.

Hammah dropped his destroyed weapon and pulled out the thropter. Tossing it in the air, he used it as a focal point for a beam of moonlight. The fiend, currently focused on crushing the surprisingly sturdy skull biting it, screamed in pain as the beam of light seared into its flesh. Zeena, Penny, and Ianthe all turned to face this final adversary. Dokami was crawling away, two of its three arms slack at its side. Charkassus was unmoving, large gash in their chest slowly oozing blood. Al, covered in cracks and fractures, was tossed away, disappearing into the bedding. 

“And now the soft fleshlings.” The fiend turned to face them, its flesh slowly knitting back together. “I will savor your flavors.” Impossibly fast for something so large, the fiend blurred forwards, pole-arm leveled at the group. Ianthe rushed forwards and crossed her blades, catching the massive weapon and forcing it upwards. Moving her hands in a complex motion, lighting wrapped around both of Ianthe’s hands and she thrust them into the fiend. The lightning played around its skin but caused no damage. 

A blast from the shotgun rocked into the creature, puncturing the flesh but otherwise seeming to not effect the creature. It kicked out, intent on hitting Ianthe in the stomach. Her lower arms shot out, catching the leg and being tossed backwards rather than to the ground. With a quick snap of her wings, Ianthe took to the air. 

Letting out another screech of fury, Zeena rushed forwards, bringing the hammer down on the fiend’s knee. With a might crack, the shaft of the maul broke and bent as it met the immovable knee. Zeena’s step faltered, her eyes widening in fear as the fiend laughed at her and swatted her away with a backhand. The vampire tumbled towards the bed near where Al still lay. 

Hammah, staying with magic, sent whips of vines forwards, the magical tendrils tearing at the flesh. “It’s a fiend! Normal weapons won’t hurt it.” He called out, dodging as a retaliatory swath of fire erupted from the creature’s mouth. 

Ianthe quickly reloaded her pistol and started peppering the fiend with bolts of holy light. It snarled at her, raising its wings to reach up and meet her. Penny, forgotten on the ground, ran over to Zeena and Al. Grabbing the ointment from her pouch, she shoved her finger in and pulled out a glob of the thick ointment. She shoved it into Zeena’s mouth, letting the substance melt and run down her throat.  
Zeena’s eyes burst open. “Only magic works.” Penny told her as she hopped onto the bed, searching for Al. She found the skull, being held together by eldritch magic and sheer luck. Scooping out more of the ointment, she spread it over the largest of the cracks, watching the infernal runes carved into his skull glow as the bone knitted back together. 

“Ok, that really hurt. I’m going to murder him.” Al was about to take off before Penny grabbed him again.

“Only magic hurts it. Do you have a magical weapon for Zeena? The hammer broke.” Al shook himself.

“That was the only spare weapon I had. I’ve got this.” He unhooked the pale blue feather necklace from in his ear holes. “It will help her.” With that, Al surged from Penny’s arms and back at the fiend, his eyes blazing a sickly green fire. 

“Zeena, put this on.” Penny looped the necklace around Zeena’s neck. “AL said it was magical.” 

Zeena stood, wobbling slightly. Air bellowed in and out of her lungs, building to a fever pitch as her anger simmered to the boiling point. Before she could rush off unarmed, Penny slid a metal crowbar into her hands. Letting out another shriek of rage, Zeena rushed forwards, crowbar held in two hands.

The fiend bellowed as it looked between its attackers. Ianthe was keeping her distance and harassing it with rapid bursts from her pistol. Hammah, not being able to fly, was focusing on running away from the scything pole-arm while his thropter floated near the middle of the room, angling the beam of concentrated light at the fiend. Al bit into the creature’s left arm as Zeena slammed her metal rod into its right side. While the metal body bounced off the flesh, the feather necklace pulsed with power, sending waves of icy energy down the metal and burning the skin of the fiend with cold. Pulling back, Zeena slammed the crowbar against the skin again and again. 

Angered, the fiend brought the large blade around to cut Zeena in half. It had finally had enough of these mortals. The small vampire raised the crowbar in a duelists block, sending the polearm arcing upwards after skittering off the crude metal of the crowbar. With one meaty paw, it grabbed Al and started squeezing, bellowing in rage as Al’s teeth sunk deeper into its flesh. Its body shook with the constant barrage of radiant energy, parts of it phasing out of reality and back to the lower planes of its home. 

Ianthe growled as the hammer of her Redeemer pistol clicked and no shot came out. She had run out of ammo. All she had left were her mundane blades and some magic which didn’t seem to have much of an effect on the fiend. Figuring distracting was better than nothing, Ianthe holstered her pistol and dove towards the fiend. Extending her blades into a point, she summoned what little energy she could still muster. Dark, necrotic energy played across the blades of her scimitars. She locked her arms a moment before impact trying to bury the blades as deep in the creature’s body as possible.  
The impact was bone jarring. Ianthe felt her wrists, elbows, and shoulders nearly crack from the impact. The necrotic energy parted the skin and the blades sunk deep into the fiend’s lower back, spilling gallons of ichor onto the ground. 

The fiend’s bellow of rage cut short as the blades entered it. Limbs falling limp, it crashed to its knees before dissolving into a pool of ichor as its torso toppled forwards. The momentum tossed Ianthe into Zeena, knocking both of them away from the pool of ichor as it exploded, immolating the pool of ichor and everything in it. Their tumble ended when they both crashed into the wall, limbs tangled together. 

“Ianthe! Zeena! You’re ok!” Penny was practically screaming as she pulled the two of them apart. She pulled the taller women into a deep hug, face buried into their chests. 

“Where’s Al?” Ianthe asked, dislodging the vampire and elf from her limbs. She looked over at the burning, melted pool. “Al!” She sprinted over to the fire, heedless of the heat. The infernal flames licked at her skin, burning her clothing and armor. Ignoring the pain, partially thanks to her infernal heritage and partly due to her worry about her uncle. She finally came across a pile of bones and gems. Gathering them in her arms, she sprinted from the flames. 

As she looked at the ruin in her arms, tears started falling from her face. All that was left of Al was a pile of skull shards, his teeth, his two eye gems, and the magical bag. Ianthe’s shoulders shook with sorrow at seeing the person who had taught her so much be reduced to so little. She looked up as a heavy thumping came close to her. Charkassus, the rend in their chest healed over into a massive scar, rested their head on Ianthe’s shoulders. 

“Ianthe…We need to get out of here. We need to get Zeena and Hammah home so we can have doctors look at them.” Penny gently touched one of her larger friend’s shoulders. There was no reply other than an intensification of her silent sobs. Slowly, Penny knelt in front of her friend. Opening Al’s bag, she took a piece of his broken skull from Ianthe’s hands and put it in the bag. When Ianthe didn’t move, she felt emboldened to take a few more pieces. Finally, all that remained in her hands were the two gemstones he used for eyes. 

Ianthe closed her hand around the two gems, refusing to put them in the bag. Realizing it was easier to let Ianthe carry them, Penny closed the bag and handed it to her friend. With a gentle tug, she got Ianthe to stand up. She gently led her friend over to the door, where Hammah and Zeena were lugging a chest between them. 

Penny looked at the rest of their companions. Silently, they all nodded and walked out, leaving the scene of the blood bath behind them. 

Five days later, the group found themselves in the same expedition camp that Al had them set out from. This time, only two figures came into the wasteland to meet them. One was the lead scrounger from last time, his head uncovered and rifle held lazily in front of him. The other guard, more cautious than the leader, still had a large, ramshackle crossbow aimed at the group. 

“Well, I’ve never been happier to lose a few royals.” He chuckled as they came within hearing distance. “I take it you found your friend.” He walked up to the group, giving Zeena a low bow. 

“Yes…we found her.” Penny spoke up. Ever since Al had died, Ianthe hadn’t spoken a word to anyone. Penny had taken on the role of leader with Al and Ianthe no longer functioning. “Do you have a place we can get out of the sun?”

“Come along. We need you to pay up for those solar cells, then you can speak to your families.” He led them over to the merchant Penny had borrowed the solar cells from. The moment they got within the shade of the trading depot, Zeena removed the massive cloak they had found for her with a loud sigh of relief.

“Well, it’s nice to see you’ve come back, and you have the solar cells still intact. So, have you come to a decision? Rent or buy?” Penny looked down at Amber. She didn’t want to give up the solar cells, but they hadn’t really found much with the cult. After the fight was over, they had ransacked the place for any wealth. The chest Zeena and Hammah had liberated was filled mostly with commons and a few nobles. In their whole search, they found no royals. In total, the coins they found only came to half of what it would take to purchase the cells. 

Still, Penny opened the chest to see what else they had shoved into it. The first few items were sparkly, but when the merchant shook her head, Penny knew she couldn’t use them to pay the rest of her way. Putting the curios and weapons aside, she pulled out what looked to her like a metal, rectangular box. Something about it felt important, but Penny couldn’t quiet place it. When the merchant saw it, her eyes went wide.

“Can I see that?” She asked, not even trying to hide her excitement. Penny handed it over. The woman took the box to a power station. Looking through the mass of wires, she found one that would fit into the box. Plugging it in, she opened it along one seam. Penny saw a blank slate of crystal on one half and dozens of keys, all marked with ancient runes on them. As the power flowed into what she now realized was a machine, it hummed to life. Others were gathering around. The screen was now showing a black background with a few icons, most of them manila folders.

“Move the cursor here and click twice.” The Technomancer told the merchant. She used the small wheel to move the cursor and clicked with the button. A white screen opened, with more manila folders. The Technomancer looked at each of them, then back at Penny. “What you found here is an old computer. How it survived the Cataclysm, I won’t even question. But what’s more important is that this was a terminal for an engineer of sorts. There are specifications for sewer systems, water systems, and even a hydro-electric system. This information is nearly priceless.”

“Priceless information?” A voice called out from the back of the crowd. “Now where have we heard that before?” A kitsune with alabaster skin, ebony fur, and a compliment of nine tails, strode through the crowd. “How much is this information my niece and her friends found worth?” The small woman placed her hands on her hips, tails waving languidly. 

“Well, the reason it is priceless is because we cannot determine how much it will be worth.” The Technomancer replied. 

“Then they will be happy to take a percentage of anything you make from the use of this information.” The fox woman said.

“Seriously, did you have to run ahead like that Zilvra?” A familiar voice called out from behind the crowd.

“What, those baby-cannon hips slowing you down?” Zilvra called back, eyes not leaving the Technomancer’s trying to force this much larger person to give her niece a good deal.

“Baby-Cannon!” Lillia’s voice grew shrill as her friend started their signature bickering. “That coming from the woman with more kits than she has tails!” The half-elven pop-star burst through the crowd, eyes wild with vengeance soon to be brought down on her long-time friend. The anger vanished immediately when she saw Ianthe. 

During this whole exchange the tall fiendling had been standing still, eyes vacant and a thousand miles away. Her hands all hung limply at her sides, except for her upper left hand, clutched into a tight fist. When she heard her mother’s voice, her head slowly came around till she saw Lillia. The moment the smaller half-elven woman came into view, her whole body slumped and fell forwards. Wrapping her four arms around her moth, she started crying, great wracking sobs that shook both of them.

“What is it dear?” Lillia crooned into her daughter’s ear as she tried to comfort the larger woman. 

“Uncle Al!” Ianthe hiccuped as she spoke. “He…he died…protecting us…from a…a…a fiend.” She opened her preciously clenched fist. Al’s eye gems were there, covered in dried blood. Lillia let out a small gasp of worry when she saw that Ianthe had been holding them tight enough that the blood as her own. 

“Al broke again?” Zilvra huffed. “Did you pick up his pieces?” 

“They’re right in here.” Penny meekly held the bag out to Zilvra. The fox woman shoved her arm into the bag and pulled out the pile of skull parts. 

“Give me his eyes.” Lillia tossed the gems to Zilvra. “Give me a minute, I’ll fix him.” Ianthe looked on incredulously as Zilvra worked her magic, strands of pure white light streaming from her into the reforming skull. As the magical ritual came to its conclusion, Al lifted from the ground and look about him, getting his bearings. Ianthe, unbelieving what happened, stumbled forwards on numb legs, poking him first with one hand, then grabbing him into a four-armed hug. 

“AH! What’s going on!” Al screamed as he was thrust again into darkness. “Stop, you’ll break me again!” 

“You deserve it.” Ianthe murmured, continuing to hug the skull. 

“Honestly dear, if it were that easy to kill Al, we would have done it ages ago.” Lillia wrapped an arm around her daughter. “Now, you all look like you need some rest. Wait over there while we make sure you get a good deal.”

“Actually, Mrs…LeCroix.” Penny ventured. Lillia turned and faced the smaller elf. “We would like to do this…It is our find, and we need to learn how to do these things.”  
“Well, if that’s true, we’ll just stand back and watch.” Zilvra, the fox-woman, replied, pulling Lillia back a step. 

Penny turned back to the Technomancer. The man was eyeing her, trying to size her up and what the information may be worth. “What are you planning on doing with this information? Are you going to pass it off or do the construction yourself?”

The Technomancer sucked his teeth. “Well, we were going to pass this along to both the City of Mirrors and to Karak for free. This information should be available for everyone.”

“I don’t disagree, but if you claim this knowledge is invaluable, and offer to give me just the solar cell for those plans, I feel like we are being cheated. You can make those plans over and over again, all you want. I will have to take this apart to even try to figure out how it works. If you want those, I want the schematics for the solar cells.” Penny gently grabbed the handle of the computer. 

The Technomancer deflated. “Sadly, we do not have the schematics. We only have the cells themselves.” Penny shrugged and pulled the computer back to her. The man’s hand gently touched the computer. “How about three percent of any profit?”

"Fifteen.” Penny countered. “We went through a lot to recover this information.”

“Seven, this belongs to the people, we will not be charging a lot for the use, mainly for upkeep.”

“Ten. That’s more than enough left over for maintenance.” Penny tugged the box slightly. 

“Fine, ten it is. We will draw up a contract.” The Technomancer smiled, shaking Penny’s hand. He moved off to write up a contract, leaving the case in Penny’s possession. Penny turned, preening at her success. 

“Al, think you can get them to send the contract to the City of Mirrors? We will be staying with Aimee for some time, and we can work out the contract there.” Al nodded to Lillia, floating off after the Technomancer. “The rest of your families are all waiting for us there. Let’s get going."


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is the final chapter of Wyrmling. I will probably start a new story under another name for the next one.

The train whistle screamed as they pulled into the station. Ianthe, Penny, Zeena, and Hammah were all sitting alone in their train car. Zilvra and Al had decided the children needed some room. After a lot of convincing that her daughter wasn’t going to disappear or die, Lillia was also convinced to leave them alone. Charkassus and Dokami, both still recovering from the near fatal wounds, were with the adults, whose magical prowess were being turned to keep the dragon and spirit alive. 

“Thank you.” Zeena said as they all stood. “I do not remember much from my time with the cult. They had me too hungry and drugged out to think clearly, so if I have thanked you already, I just want to say again. Thank you all. You mean so much to me.” Gingerly, she hugged each of them. When she got to Hammah, her nose twitched slightly. She looked over at Penny. 

Penny blushed heavily and Zeena gave a small squeal of delight. Immediately, she whipped back to Hammah. “I do not care that you only have one arm, but if you hurt my little Penny in any way that she does not enjoy, I will rip off your remaining arm and beat you to death with it.” Zeena’s hair bounced as she glared at Hammah, her mass of dark curls framing a face that did not glower well. Moments later her glower turned into a smile. “Now, tell me everything that happened!” 

Ianthe smiled as the irrepressible vampire grabbed Penny and pulled her from the car, asking very personal questions about her first time with Hammah. The shapeshifter stood blushing, trying to ignore the fact that one of his girlfriend’s best friends had just asked about his endowment. “You get used to her. You should have seen her when mine grew in. She was so excited she nearly forgot the decorum her parents drilled into her.” She grabbed him with both left arms, squeezing him gently. “How are you holding up?”

Hammah chuckled humorlessly. “Almost feeling that you should have left me in that creature’s maw. I know my family will be there, if only to banish me.” He gently squeezed the pocket the thropter was hidden in. 

“Will they really be that harsh?” Ianthe asked, leading him from the train. The covered station was filled with people switching trains, jostling and bumping each other, creating a cacophony of noise. However, around their few cars, there was no one moving or bustling. Off to one side lay Dokami and Charkassus, with Milo and Lucien climbing over them. Norris, Lillia, Zilvra, and Adria all stood off to the side, talking quietly amongst themselves. 

Queen Aimee, in her ceremonial robes and flanked by six guards, stood behind a group of three people in a tumbled, tight embrace. Zeena was buried in her parent’s embraces, the three of them shedding tears of joy at being reunited. The queen was watching, a slightly amused expression on her face. When she looked at the last two leaving the train, her smile filled with sorrow. 

The third group drew their attention. There were five people waiting, all of them for Hammah. Three of them seemed to be fairly old, their hair having long turned to gray. Two were human, one curled with age and the other shriveled, but upright. The third was a dwarf, beard doubled over and wrapped around their body due to its immense length. Ianthe figured the remaining two were Hammah’s parents, with them being close to the same age as her mother. Ianthe released his shoulder so he could approach his parents. Penny, seeing what was happening, slide over to stand nearby.

Hammha’s mother strode forwards and looked her son over. He stood still as she walked around him, noticing the clear lack of weapon other than his club. Penny rankled at the imperious attitude that the woman examined her son with, as if he was a prized horse she was considering purchasing. She balled her fists, angry at the impotent feeling the quintet’s attitude showed them. As she passed behind her son, she gave a contemptuous look at Penny and the tools visible at her side. 

“So, this is how you come back to us?” She finally asked. There was silence for a while, so long that Penny was sure Hammah should have answered. Still, she kept her mouth shut, biting her cheek to keep from blurting out and getting him in more trouble than she knew he was. “What do you have to confess?”

“I have broken some of our tenants to save my friends.” Hammah replied, voice and gaze level and a thousand miles away. 

“And which ones did you break?” She growled, her voice taking on the timbre of an angry bear. 

“I used technology.” He pulled the thropter from his pocket. “It was only with this I was able to use the power of moonlight inside.” The elders murmured amongst themselves, clearly disturbed by the admission. Hammah held the thropter out for them to see. The dwarven elder, seeing the contraption, spat on the ground. 

“I see you were wise enough not to put any within your body.” The human elder, bent with age, croaked, his voice shaking and papery. “You will have to pay penance for your transgressions by using that abomination.”

“You will need to renounce any connection to these companions you have been travelling with.” The phlemy voice of the third elder cut through the susurrus around them. Most of the train station had fallen silent, everyone watching this meeting of luminaries. “You will also need to cut all contact from this…girl…unless she renounces the way of the machine.” Penny winced at the hesitation they could all hear when the elder called her a girl. She could hear Ianthe’s knuckles cracking as her friend’s fists clenched. 

Hammah’s mother scoffed and strode towards Penny, anger in her eyes. “I think I know his second transgression against our ways.” Her hand reached out, clearly aiming for Penny’s lower half. Her hand froze as the soft slither of a blade exiting its sheath hit their ears. The gleam of a curved blade appeared near the wrist of the outstretched hand.

“If you touch my friend, even if it costs me my life, I will end you.” Ianthe’s deep voice had taken on a fiendish aspect, seeming to come from two sets of vocal chords. 

“Penny is a pure gem, and she is the only reason Hammah is still alive.” Zeena stepped up to her other side, lips curled back to show her fangs. “You will not speak ill of her.”

“I will speak how I wish to any foul creature.” His mother, uncowed by the blade or fangs, stared the two of them down. “You are unnatural abominations.”

“Zeena and I know that very well.” Ianthe growled, hoof making an unnaturally loud clack as she took another step forward. “I know I am the way I am due to exposure to pure magic in the womb.”

“My whole clan is this way due to an ancient curse and the Cataclysm.” Zenna put a protective arm around Penny. “But our little Penny is pure and natural. Yes, she likes mechanics and mechanisms, and she makes wonderful devices from them. But there is nothing unnatural about her.”

Hammah’s mother turned towards him. “Is that what you wanted to confess to us?” Even though it was a question, her voice made it seem an accusation. “That you associate with unnatural beings and use unnatural tools?”

“You know what our laws are.” His father, silent till now, spoke, voice as wispy as the wind on the seashore. “For your transgressions, we must banish you and strip you off all your titles, privileges, and family ties. However, should you renounce your friends and the use of that device, you will have to suffer penance, but you will be able to come home.” 

“Hammah.” Penny’s voice waivered, her hand crushing Zeena’s in a death grip as she tried not to break down. “Please go…I don’t want you to suffer because of me.” A silent sob shook her body. She took a few moments to compose herself before she continued. “We’re too young to make a choice like this.” 

Penny watched as Hammah’s shoulders shook in a soft chuckle. He spoke without looking at her, voice quiet enough that they had to lean in. “I’m actually old enough to choose, that’s why they’re giving me the choice, rather than ordering me home. Besides, I knew what the penalty was going to be when I took the thropter,” he turned towards her, a soft smile on his lips. “And when we shared a bed.” He turned the rest of his body towards his friends and walked over, wincing at the soft groan of pain from his parents. 

“So be it.” The dwarf’s voice echoed throughout the chamber. “Hammah Orgama, you are stripped of all titles, privileges, protections, and your family name. You are now Hammah Komeha. You are barred from ever entering our lands or being taught by our people or teaching any of the secrets you have learned. Should we find that you have breached any of these terms, we will hunt you down.” He strode forwards, a blade of bone in his hand. With a quick flick, Hammah’s shirt was cut away. A quick murmur and flames seared into Hammha’s back, making a mark of a circle surrounding a pentagon with a pair of crossed lines in the middle. “It is done.”

They all watched in silence as the Druid contingent walked away, their imperious nature causing bystanders to flee before them. Those remaining took one last look at the group and backed away, going about their usual business. 

Slowly, Penny walked over to Hammah, sliding her hands around his one remaining hand. He gently interlaced his fingers with hers and turned towards her. Without a word, they pulled together, wrapping their arms around each other. Only able to contain herself for so long, Zeena launched herself at the pair, bringing both of them into a bone creaking hug. 

Ianthe was about to turn away when she felt a powerful hand grab her tail and slowly pull her into the group. Zeena pulled her into the hug. After a moment, Ianthe joined, wrapping an arm around each of her friends. 

“Can Hammah stay with us?” Penny asked, voice muffled as she was crushed between three larger bodies. 

“Not in the dorm suite.” Ianthe sighed. “We need to get an apartment for that.”

“You found a lot of money. I think we can afford one.” Zeena nuzzled Penny’s hair. “We will not leave you out in the cold.”

“Don’t you still have classes? I don’t want you to stop going because of me.” Hammah held onto Penny, his arm wrapped around her slight frame. 

“I do, and I will, but we can find an apartment close enough.” Penny looked up into his face. She could see the fear behind his eyes. “It just means we will have to find some additional work.” 

“You still owe me one summer adventure.” Al called from the side. 

“See, we have one lined up already.” Penny chuckled nervously.

“And there is always plenty of call for someone good with animals and plants in the towers.” Zeena added. “Just because we do not live near nature does not mean we do not crave it. You could make a good business catering to them.” Silence descended on the group. It was a warm, friendly silence that required no words. 

“I hate to break up such a wonderful display of affection, but I have a date to meet and a function to attend, and even the Queen can only be so late.” Aimee strode forwards. “Perhaps we can move along while you make the plans for your future? I would like to spend some time talking with my niece alone if she can be spared.” 

Zeena gave them all one last squeeze before running over to her aunt’s side, giving her a bow before falling in beside her. Ianthe’s family took this as the time to approach. As the tall fiendling removed herself from her friends, she felt a duo of impacts on her legs. She looked down at her two brothers, both of them squeezing her legs tightly. All she could see was Lucien’s blond hair and Milo’s lank, pale hair. Her lower arms wrapped around each of them as her upper arms she kept open for the other fiendling and half-elf approaching. 

“Well, got your first taste of adventure.” Lillia smiled at her daughter. “I don’t know how my mother did it. I was terrified you were going to die at any moment and I was going to lose you.”

“Your mother is a strong woman.” Norris kissed his wife’s head. “And you have a very vivid imagination.” Lillia glared at him for a moment before they moved forwards and hugged their daughter. 

They spent the next few days in the city, helping Ianthe and her friends to find an apartment for the four of them. Aimee and Belladonna offered them places in the Stromkirk and Steele towers, but they needed to be close enough to attend classes. They finally settled on an apartment in the mid-spire. Farther from their classes, but in the middle of a lot of traffic.

The was on the edge of a planned community, one of the apartments that was a standing building rather than a set of rooms in a small hallway. It looked slightly dilapidated, as if it had been left abandoned for years. There was one main story, with a half-second floor on one side and a tall tower on the other side, reaching up to the fifty feet to the ceiling of this level. 

“I call the tower.” Ianthe declared as they finished signing the paperwork. 

“Fine, I shall make the second floor my crypt.” Zeena tossed her hair.

“Crypt my ass.” Ianthe huffed. “You are too bubbly to live in a crypt. If there isn’t five different bright colors in your room by the end of the week…”

“You’ll tell us who your crush is.” Penny cut in, smirking as she handed the pen to Hammah. Ianthe glared at the small elf, then smiled wickedly. 

“Deal. If Zeena can live in a dark crypt for a week, without adding any bright colors to her room, I will tell you who my crush is.” She held out a hand to each of them. “But what do I get if I win, other than the knowledge that I called it?”

“I will do all of your chores for a month.” Zeena turned her nose up, trying to strike a heroic pose.

“I’ve seen you do laundry. I’d rather not walk around naked.” Ianthe chuckled as Zeena gave her a sour glare. “I think I’ll be fine just with the knowledge that I’m right.” They all shook hands, chuckling as they took their copy of the renter’s agreement and walked into their new home.


End file.
